Are French Roads Still the Deadliest in Europe?
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Lifestyle - Reuters
Are French Roads Still the Deadliest in Europe?
Mon Jul 21, 8:07 AM ET
By Toni Vorobyova
PARIS (Reuters) - Motorbikes zoom down Parisian pavements, cars ignore crosswalks and the honking of horns during rush hour is constant. Welcome to France's roads, home of some of the world's most irate drivers.
But a personal crusade by President Jacques Chirac to improve road safety, launched a year ago amid great fanfare, is slowly changing attitudes in the country with the highest toll of road deaths in western Europe -- some 8,000 a year.
In the last 12 months, 1,400 fewer people have been killed in road accidents compared to a year ago, a drop of 18 percent.
"It has been better than we had dared hope," said Genevieve Jurgensen, who founded the League Against Road Violence 20 years ago after her two young daughters were killed in a car crash.
The figures are all the more surprising because the decrease is due almost exclusively to a stepping up of police checks, with new laws targeting bad drivers.
"After the president's speech there followed a real interest in the media (and) the fear of road police and of judges is starting to have an effect," said Beatrice Houchard, author of a pamphlet entitled "Stopping the road massacre."
Public opinion has also changed. Three in five respondents to a recent survey said they had improved their driving habits over the past six months and more than half noted positive changes in fellow drivers.
"It seems to me there has been a real awakening," Transport Minister Gilles de Robien told a news conference on road safety.
But French roads have yet to face the test of their busiest weekend of the year, when, at the start of August, millions of cars cross paths as some head home from July breaks while others set off for summer vacations.
Roughly three-quarters of French people go on holiday in their car, the high percentage explained in part by a strong national preference for destinations within France.
EVERYONE'S FAVORITE REFORM
A new law passed in June raised maximum penalties for driving offenses and introduced probationer licenses for new drivers with only six points -- half the normal amount -- for the first three years. Lose them and you must retake the test.
Some 1,000 new automatic speed radars will be installed by 2005. Compulsory wearing of seat belts in coaches and medical exams for drivers over 75 are also on the cards.
In a Paris Match poll, the fight for safer roads was the most popular reform of the center-right government, which took power in May 2002. It was backed by 62 percent of respondents.
While noting that the drop in road deaths over the last 12 months was the biggest ever recorded, de Robien remains cautious.
"(I will) never be satisfied while there are still deaths on the road," he told French radio in an interview.
Last year, road accidents claimed 7,230 lives in France and in 2003 Houchard estimates the toll will reach 6,000 -- still much higher than in most other European Union (news - web sites) countries.
"The main difference is the problem of behavior. The French don't really respect laws, whether cheating on their taxes or breaking the speed limit," Houchard said.
"We have a tendency to deny the danger, underestimate the risk," she said, adding that teaching children about the dangers of driving from a younger age could help trim the death toll.
TOO MANY FOR THE ROAD
The main killers on French roads are alcohol and speed.
In a country where a few glasses of wine with an evening meal are the norm and even McDonald's sells beer, almost a third of fatal accidents involved drivers who are over the limit.
But there are signs of change.
Earlier this year, in an unprecedented ruling, a French cafe owner was given two months in jail for serving two jugs of wine to a customer whom he knew to be driving. The man went on to crash with another car on a country lane, killing three people.
Road safety campaigner Jurgensen says the current alcohol and speed limits are adequate, but the problem is making sure they are respected.
For her and her league, the aim is now to revamp car design in favor of lighter vehicles with a top speed of 80 mph an hour and installing so-called black boxes in all cars.
The gadget records speed, direction and whether the brakes were applied and will make it easier to determine why and how an accident took place. The government has promised to install them in all new cars it buys from next year.
Houchard, whose interest in road safety was awakened by reporting on crash scenes as a young journalist on a regional paper, feels this time the momentum of the campaign could last.
"I think the next government will not be able to slacken efforts in this area. There will be great pressure to continue," she said
Are French Roads Still the Deadliest in Europe?
Mon Jul 21, 8:07 AM ET
By Toni Vorobyova
PARIS (Reuters) - Motorbikes zoom down Parisian pavements, cars ignore crosswalks and the honking of horns during rush hour is constant. Welcome to France's roads, home of some of the world's most irate drivers.
But a personal crusade by President Jacques Chirac to improve road safety, launched a year ago amid great fanfare, is slowly changing attitudes in the country with the highest toll of road deaths in western Europe -- some 8,000 a year.
In the last 12 months, 1,400 fewer people have been killed in road accidents compared to a year ago, a drop of 18 percent.
"It has been better than we had dared hope," said Genevieve Jurgensen, who founded the League Against Road Violence 20 years ago after her two young daughters were killed in a car crash.
The figures are all the more surprising because the decrease is due almost exclusively to a stepping up of police checks, with new laws targeting bad drivers.
"After the president's speech there followed a real interest in the media (and) the fear of road police and of judges is starting to have an effect," said Beatrice Houchard, author of a pamphlet entitled "Stopping the road massacre."
Public opinion has also changed. Three in five respondents to a recent survey said they had improved their driving habits over the past six months and more than half noted positive changes in fellow drivers.
"It seems to me there has been a real awakening," Transport Minister Gilles de Robien told a news conference on road safety.
But French roads have yet to face the test of their busiest weekend of the year, when, at the start of August, millions of cars cross paths as some head home from July breaks while others set off for summer vacations.
Roughly three-quarters of French people go on holiday in their car, the high percentage explained in part by a strong national preference for destinations within France.
EVERYONE'S FAVORITE REFORM
A new law passed in June raised maximum penalties for driving offenses and introduced probationer licenses for new drivers with only six points -- half the normal amount -- for the first three years. Lose them and you must retake the test.
Some 1,000 new automatic speed radars will be installed by 2005. Compulsory wearing of seat belts in coaches and medical exams for drivers over 75 are also on the cards.
In a Paris Match poll, the fight for safer roads was the most popular reform of the center-right government, which took power in May 2002. It was backed by 62 percent of respondents.
While noting that the drop in road deaths over the last 12 months was the biggest ever recorded, de Robien remains cautious.
"(I will) never be satisfied while there are still deaths on the road," he told French radio in an interview.
Last year, road accidents claimed 7,230 lives in France and in 2003 Houchard estimates the toll will reach 6,000 -- still much higher than in most other European Union (news - web sites) countries.
"The main difference is the problem of behavior. The French don't really respect laws, whether cheating on their taxes or breaking the speed limit," Houchard said.
"We have a tendency to deny the danger, underestimate the risk," she said, adding that teaching children about the dangers of driving from a younger age could help trim the death toll.
TOO MANY FOR THE ROAD
The main killers on French roads are alcohol and speed.
In a country where a few glasses of wine with an evening meal are the norm and even McDonald's sells beer, almost a third of fatal accidents involved drivers who are over the limit.
But there are signs of change.
Earlier this year, in an unprecedented ruling, a French cafe owner was given two months in jail for serving two jugs of wine to a customer whom he knew to be driving. The man went on to crash with another car on a country lane, killing three people.
Road safety campaigner Jurgensen says the current alcohol and speed limits are adequate, but the problem is making sure they are respected.
For her and her league, the aim is now to revamp car design in favor of lighter vehicles with a top speed of 80 mph an hour and installing so-called black boxes in all cars.
The gadget records speed, direction and whether the brakes were applied and will make it easier to determine why and how an accident took place. The government has promised to install them in all new cars it buys from next year.
Houchard, whose interest in road safety was awakened by reporting on crash scenes as a young journalist on a regional paper, feels this time the momentum of the campaign could last.
"I think the next government will not be able to slacken efforts in this area. There will be great pressure to continue," she said
holes in cars. Not sure that the rest of Europe is much better tho' Thank god they're steadily growing out of their "give way to the right at every opportunity" attitude. I recall travelling to Le Mans (in 1988, I think it was) and being overtaken by some guy in a splendidly restored E-Type. We met again a few miles later. He'd T-boned some plonker in a 2CV who'd wandered aimlessly out of a side-road straight into his path, blithely thinking he had the right of way. "Vous n'avez pas le priorité", as they say in France.
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