The number of people killed on the roads of France saw a rebound in September after declining for two months, keeping up with the questions on the lowering of the speed limit of 80 km/h which came into force in July.
A total of 323 people have been killed in September, which is 26 more (+ 8.8 per cent) than last year at the same period. The number of accidents is also increasing (5 373, 285 more, + 5,6 %), as the number of casualties (+ 6 568, 273, more, + 4.3 per cent).
The general trend, however, remains downward : between October 2017 and September 2018, the number of people killed on the roads is down 4.8 % (3 309 dead), thus confirming that a movement virtuous was installed well prior to the introduction of the 80 km/h in July of this year. In the first nine months of the year, road Safety has identified 137 dead less than during the same period in 2017 (2 426 vs. 2 563). It does, however, only grow more severe the rebound in mortality in September, where, in all logic, the 80 km/h should be used to the full, according to the doctrine of Édouard Philippe.
However, it is not, clearly demonstrating that the causes of accidents are multiple and that the road Safety has never really been interested in them. However, to lower really the dangerousness of the roads, it will be necessary to overcome some excesses of speed which obnubilent the executive to focus on alcohol and drugs at the wheel, the state of the roads, all things particularly neglected up to now.
of Course, it is far too early to draw conclusions, but we didn’t shot no more with the two-year experiment conducted on 86 miles of roads needed to support the measurement of 80 km/h. Craftsmen or opponents of the 80 km/h, all the actors of the road Safety refuse to draw up a balance sheet of the lowering of the speed limit on 400 000 km of secondary roads, entered into force on 1 July after months of controversy.
The months of July and August had seen the number of deaths on roads decline (- 5.5% in July, – 15.5% in August). Despite the strong opposition of elected officials and associations of motorists and motorcyclists, the government had lowered the speed to try to curb the number of road deaths, to rise again between 2014 and 2016. According to him, this measure could save up to 400 lives per year.
” It is still too early to measure the actual effects, it is necessary to wait. I had said when we’d had the good results of August, I repeat these results in half-hearted, ” said the interministerial delegate for road Safety Emmanuel Barbe. “The beautiful weather of September has put more people on the roads,” he noted, pointing in particular to a mortality of motorcyclists always high (81 dead). You have to look at ” prospects for longer time “, pleaded he.
The third quarter of 2018, has thus recorded “road deaths lowest on a third quarter over the last ten years” (898 killed), according to the road Safety. A way of presenting things, with July and August down to compensate for September up.
In the meantime the method Castaner
For the delegate general of the association 40 Million motorists in Stone Chasseray, vocal opponent of the 80 km/h, ” the figure on one month does not make a trend, but it is a bad sign.”
” The government has announced that it was going to save 400 lives with the 80 km/h, or almost one life per day. For the moment, it is far from the account “, he says. “There was an increase after two months of decline, one may wonder about the ability of this measure to reduce in a sustainable way accidentalité “.
” It is a far cry of what we could expect “, concedes Chantal Perrichon, partisan, and she, the lowering of the speed. “The number of deaths has been declining since January. There has been an announcement effect [with the formalization of the measure on 9 January, ED], but there is a problem in its implementation and its evaluation “, considers the president of the League against road violence, demanding more controls and better communication.
” let us Hope that with the arrival of a new tandem at the ministry of the Interior [Christophe Castaner and Lawrence Nuñez, ED], there will be a common front for effective implementation and proper management of this measure “, she adds.
Although number two in the government, the former Interior minister Gérard Collomb did not hide his skepticism on the 80 km/h, measurement is driven by Matignon. Christophe Castaner, then secretary of State in charge of Relations with the Parliament and the delegate-general of The Republic in march, plead him, to the ” extent of disruption “, a sign, according to him, ” political courage “. What a shower the hopes of the proponents of a road safety finally reasoned.
