Urgent road safety meeting held today

A TOP-LEVEL government committee is getting together today to thrash out new road safety measures after an alarming rise in road deaths in recent months.

So far nothing is fixed, but one of the items on the table is expected to be lowering the speed limit from 90kph to 80kph on the whole network of secondary roads without central barriers.

A trial has been carried out in certain departments and the measure is backed by government advisory body the Conseil National de Sécurité Routière but it is likely to be opposed by many motorists and is controversial.

Other measures which are thought to be likely to be discussed include:

• Drivers who have been guilty of drink-driving offences to have to have breathalysers linked to the ignition installed in their cars

• Motorcyclists to have to wear gloves and have contrôles techniques (MPT tests) on their bikes. Until now bike maintenance has been left to motorcyclists’ own initiative.

• Hundreds of new speed cameras to be installed, including new ‘multi-function’ ones able not only to detect speeding but also, for example, dangerous behaviour like crossing over a central white line or overtaking on the right.

Road deaths increased in 2014 for the first time in 12 years and this tendency has only been confirmed so far during 2015, with 4.6% more deaths in the first eight months compared to last year and a rise of 19% in July compared to July 2014.

Today’s meeting will be the first time in four years that an ‘Interministerial Road Safety Committee’ has met.