2019 - Lowest Deaths on French roads

The number of road deaths in France during 2019 was the lowest total since records began. The figures are in contrast to those for 2018 which showed an increase in deaths & has been connected to the controversial reduction of the speed limit on main roads from 90 kph to 80 kph. However figures just released for the month of January, 2020 now show a 10% increase in road deaths over the same month in 2019 - deaths this year were 260 as opposed to 237 in January last year.

The French Interior Minister was quoted as saying: “This 2019 figure is a historically low number. It is actually the lowest number we have seen since records began. This is because we have brought strong policies to road safety.

“Our citizens are aware of the risks on the road, and we must, alongside them, help people to understand that behaviour change and measures for road safety, are measures that change lives.”

Following the reduction of the speed limit, up to 75% of speed cameras in France were vandalised with President Macron stating that there was a direct link between the vandalism & the 2018 rise in road deaths. Before these new figures were released, some French departments had already decided to return their speed limits to 90 kph with a Senator for the Vienne department in Poitou Charente stating that the 80kph limit had made no impact on road safety & condemning the “government’s total failure on road safety.”