Skip to main content

Drop in French road deaths ‘due to speed cameras’

Figures released by France’s National Council for Road Safety (CNSR) indicate that the number of people killed on French roads dropped by fifteen per cent in the first half of 2013 compared with the same period last year. Interior Minister Manuel Valls said that 257 fewer people had died in road accidents compared with the first six months of 2012. 2012 was also a record year, with an improvement of eight per cent over 2011. “These results are extremely encouraging,” said Valls, who reiterated his
July 15, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Figures released by France’s National Council for Road Safety (CNSR) indicate that the number of people killed on French roads dropped by fifteen per cent in the first half of 2013 compared with the same period last year.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls said that 257 fewer people had died in road accidents compared with the first six months of 2012.  2012 was also a record year, with an improvement of eight per cent over 2011.

“These results are extremely encouraging,” said Valls, who reiterated his ambition to reduce the number of fatalities, 3,645 in the whole of 2012, to 2,000 by 2020.
Speed was the primary cause of fatal accidents, said Valls, who has asked the CNSR to consider introducing aircraft-style black boxes in cars, so that the precise cause of accidents can be established.

A drop of 29.5 per cent in May on the year before was attributed by the CNSR attributed to gloomy weather, the financial crisis which has caused motorists to drive more slowly and the introduction of new speed cameras on French roads.

“Without speed cameras we would not have seen such a reduction,” said Valls, adding that the number of mobile cameras in unmarked cars, which have been subject to huge publicity, would soon rise to 100, adding to the 4,000 fixed radars across France.

Related Content

  • Measuring the effectiveness of winter VMS
    August 5, 2013
    A survey into the effectiveness of weather-related variable message signs on a trans-mountain highway has some interesting results, as Alexis Bacelar told ITS Europe. A study in the Massif Central region of France evaluating the usefulness of winter weather warning signs has highlighted the effect of variable message signs on driver behaviour. During the winter of 2009-2010, road operator Massif Central Direction Interdépartementale des Routes (MC DIR) started installing bad weather-specific variable messag
  • Turning off red light cameras costs lives, new research shows
    July 29, 2016
    Red light camera programs in 79 large US cities saved nearly 1,300 lives through 2014, researchers from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) have found. Shutting down such programs has cost lives, with the rate of fatal red-light-running crashes shooting up 30 per cent in cities that have turned off cameras. Red-light-running crashes caused 709 deaths in 2014 and an estimated 126,000 injuries. Red light runners account for a minority of the people killed in such crashes. Most of those killed
  • CCTV technology aids fight against UK insurance fraud
    June 9, 2014
    An increasing number of UK commercial fleets are turning to in-vehicle technology for protection against the sharp rise of insurance fraud, according to CCTV vehicle company, Vision Unique Equipment (VUE). Latest figures from the Association of British Insurers reveal insurance fraud is at a record high, reaching US$2.18 billion in 2013, with US$1.3 billion of fraudulent claims attributed to car insurance. ‘Crash for cash’ car insurance scams were identified as the main contributor to a 34 per cent rise
  • Siemens Mobility is clearing the air
    October 2, 2020
    Tens of thousands of premature deaths in the UK alone are linked to air quality - but it doesn’t have to be that way. Siemens Mobility’s Wilke Reints explains why