On Thursday, Road Safety campaigners welcomed the sharp drop, for the 4th consecutive month, of the number of deaths on the roads of France.
The number of dead on the roads of metropolitan France fell sharply in August (-15.5%) with 251 people killed, against 297 in the same month in 2017, announced Road Safety Thursday 13th September.
ℹ️ La mortalité routière d’août 2018 est en net recul par rapport au mois d’août 2017. Les autres indicateurs de l’accidentalité routière sont également en baisse. Consultez le communiqué de @RoutePlusSure 👉 https://t.co/44Z9GZ9vDq pic.twitter.com/2WO7Ftz6UO
— Ministère de l’Intérieur (@Place_Beauvau) 13 September 2018
Three months of decline
After a sharp drop in May (-8.4%), June (-9.3%) and July (-5.5%), these figures confirm the downward trend in road mortality in France, which began in 2017 after three consecutive years of increase, according to preliminary estimates of the National Interministerial Observatory of Road Safety (ONISR).
The number of injured is also down: 5395 people were injured on the roads of mainland last month, against 5523 at the same period last year (-2.1%).
In total, metropolis and Outremer combined, 267 people lost their lives on the roads in August 2018.
A terrible month for cyclists
But this drop in road traffic fatalities during a traditionally busy August on the roads is accompanied by “bad results” for cyclists and motorcycles , among the worst “for five years” with 24 cyclists killed , says Road Safety .
On 1 July, at the very beginning of the summer holiday period, the controversial new speed limit of 80 km/h on 400,000 km of secondary roads came into effect , with the aim of reducing the number of people killed .
Since the announcement of this measure in January, “we talked a lot about road safety and the more we talk about road safety, the more we have good results,” reacted to AFP Emmanuel Barbe, Interdepartmental Delegate for Road Safety however, explaining that it will take “time to see” the precise effects of lowering the speed limit to 80 km/h.
The announcement of the measure had boosted associations of motorists, motorcyclists, but also parliamentarians and local elected officials of all sides who had mobilised, in vain at the moment, to try to roll back the government.
“The goal is not to annoy the world. The goal is to ensure that there are fewer deaths and fewer serious injuries, “hammered Prime Minister Edouard Philippe at the end of June.
