New low for road deaths

FIGURES for roads deaths have dropped below 4,000 for the first time since the statistics have been collated.

Provisional figures for 2010 put the figure at 3,994, or a drop of 6.5 per cent on the previous year. Among those, 941 were users of two-wheelers, down from 1,144 (a 20 per cent drop for motorcyclists and 12 per cent for mopeds).

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said this was the ninth consecutive year of decreases and represents “300 lives saved” compared to 2009.

A government spokeswoman said the new figures were the best since records started in 1949. They were down from 18,000 in 1972, which was halved by 2002 and halved again since then, thanks to a low-tolerance policy, extra speed cameras
etc.

Mr Hortefeux said there had been a concerted political effort plus “total vigilance” by people working in the road safety field.

None the less the president of la Ligue contre la violence routière, Chantal Perrichon, said the figure was “pathetic” compared to the goal of 3,000 by 2012, which she said President Sarkozy set in 2007.