Road Safety

This is an update of something I wrote 2 years ago. British people often say it must be hard to drive on the other side of the road, but of course when you move to another country you get used to it after a bit. But there are certainly differences between French driving and British - motorways/Autoroutes less crowded, more hair-raising overtaking, even less reliable signalling on or near roundabouts for example. You need to pay a lot of attention to overtaking - one French person told me it happens because French drivers always want to be in front. And a recent survey shows increasing neglect of the blinking indicators (to coin a phrase).

A couple of years ago in The Connexion, an English-language monthly for ex-pats, someone wrote to suggest the paper did an article about bad French driving. The editor rather weakly replied that it was not their job to offend the French. Well, I don't want to do that either, but I did wonder whether there was any substance in the the idea that things were worse here. So I looked up road accident stats (not straightforward, but official websites yielded the answers in the end) and this graph showing road deaths is the result. 2009 deaths in France are virtually the same as 2008.

In 2002 before President Chirac started government initiatives against drink driving and speeding, in countries of almost identical populations, well over twice as many people were killed on French roads each year; even now British road deaths are over 40% lower than here. Injuries seem to follow the relative figures. Official publications say the problems are still mainly too much speed and too much drink, as well, increasinly, as talking on mobile phones while driving. They take very seriously the target of reducing accidents - blood alcohol limits are being reduced still further. There has been an interesting muddle over advertising radar speed traps recently - the govt said it would remove warning panels, but has now done a u-turn (!) in face of political protests. France is not the worst country in Europe - Ireland is about the same and Portugal much worse, for example - but as French residents now we shall certainly take extra care, and try not to resent the increase in speed cameras (2 fines for minor speeding offences so far in 4+ years!)

When we arrived here I decided I should know what the equivalent of our Highway Code said. The Code de la route turns out to be a clear, thorough and I think impressive document, well-illustrated and informative: I don't think the British counterpart has for example a description and explanation of ABS brakes. There are some interesting differences - for example single yellow lines in France mean you can neither unload nor park, dotted that you can unload but not park. In a country addicted to fresh bread there are numerous 'arrêt minute' areas where you can hop out to get your baguette at the boulangerie but otherwise, the Code says, dashing into the bakers is parking (stationnement) and not a simple arrêt. While I'm on about French road rules, a very useful one to remember is that 50 km/h (roughly 30 mph) speed limits start automatically when you see the town or village sign (black on white edged in red). That is one reason for the often useful 'you are now leaving such and such a place' signs (no red and with a diagonal line through the place name) - it also signals the cancellation of the town speed limit. For dozy drivers and map readers it's also a handy revision tool - as in 'where the hell are we now - never mind I'll check on the way out'.

So despite my wish for scrupulous fairness I think there is some reason to be wary of other drivers on French roads, and particularly never to try and guess which way they will head on roundabouts (something my French friends also complain about a lot). And it does really seem as if, however fast you are driving, there's always someone behind you wanting to go faster. Never mind, it could be worse - according to a French govt publication it's far more dangerous on the roads almost anywhere in eastern Europe or even in Portugal!