Road safety reformer Jacques Chirac dies

The news that former French president Jacques Chirac has died, aged 86, should be of note for those in the road safety sector. His political legacy is well known. Chirac was prime minister of France from 1974-76 and again from 1986-88, mayor of Paris from 1977-95 and finally president of France from 1995-2007. But his political reputation ended under a cloud following his suspended sentence on corruption charges. Perhaps less well widely known, however, is that Chirac had a tremendously beneficial eff
September 27, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

The news that former French president Jacques Chirac has died, aged 86, should be of note for those in the road safety sector.

His political legacy is well known. Chirac was prime minister of France from 1974-76 and again from 1986-88, mayor of Paris from 1977-95 and finally president of France from 1995-2007. But his political reputation ended under a cloud following his suspended sentence on corruption charges.

Perhaps less well widely known, however, is that Chirac had a tremendously beneficial effect on road safety in France. Chirac was injured in a road crash in 1978 and that inspired him to institute a tough line on enforcement of laws against drink-driving and speeding in particular.

French law had previously been lax on these, with the result that the country’s annual road casualty rate was shockingly high. Chirac’s tough line on road safety started in 2002, resulting in the French police cracking down hard on offences. The result was that France’s annual road casualty rate fell dramatically – to around 5,000 deaths in 2003, down from 14,000 a year during the 1970s - and has remained much lower ever since.

It is worth noting that that there are many French people today living healthy lives, who perhaps would not have been but for Chirac’s actions. Perhaps this was not the legacy Chirac set out to achieve when he entered politics, but it is one that deserves much credit.

Urban Traffic Control

Related Content

  • Ireland gets up to speed with €9m for enforcement cameras
    October 15, 2024
    "Speed cameras lead to drivers reducing speed," says minister for justice
    Read More
  • Developments in smarter multi-modal fare paynment
    February 2, 2012
    This section pulls together all the multi-modal topics in each issue. Subject matter will include smartcards; ticketing and payment systems; passenger information systems; fleet management for buses, trains and light rail; park and ride systems; on-line access to real-time information via Internet portals
    Read More
  • One in twenty UK adults involved in a road accident last year
    August 8, 2013
    One in twenty UK adults was involved in a road accident in 2012, according to road safety charity, Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM). Using information from the National Travel Survey published by the Department for Transport it shows that 5.2 per cent of the population admit to having been involved in an accident, meaning that 2.4 million people were involved in a road crash last year, with around 800,000 actually injured. In the vast majority of these crashes those involved were car occupants. Figure
    Read More
  • Are road user charging systems too complicated?
    February 27, 2012
    At any conference or exhibition, it tends to be the ad libs and asides, the departures from the scripted or official lines, which are the most telling. In mid-February, ITS-UK's Road User Charging Interest Group met in London. The event was no exception to that statement. Keith Mortimer, the Group's chairman, and his colleagues put together one of the better programmes on charging and tolling that I've seen in recent years. Sadly, however, the very positive presentations on deployments and technological pro
    Read More

Highlighted Content