Police to hand out €50 rewards to good drivers

Police on patrol in the Dordogne are planning to pull over several drivers on Friday - and give them a €50 voucher as a reward for good driving.

Officers in unmarked cars will offer the vouchers - which can be used to pay for fuel - to four drivers who, not knowing they were being followed, drove courteously, stayed within the speed limits, use their indicators correctly.

They will follow vehicles for 15 minutes, during which time they will carry out a check on the vehicle to see if they driver has any convictions. If the motorist unknowingly 'passes' all the tests, they will be stopped, congratulated and handed a €50 voucher by a journalist from local radio station France Bleu Perigord, which is sponsoring the initiative.

Authorities plan to repeat the good driving exercise six times a year, coinciding with the start of the school holidays or on bank holiday weekends.

In January, the government announced a series of measures intended to reduce the number of fatalities on France's roads, where nearly 3,500 people were killed in 2017, including ways to reward good drivers.