France used to be one of the worst countries in Europe with regards to road deaths. Everyone was speeding, or ignoring most traffic laws (traffic laws were seen as guidelines only). For several years, the now President, Nicholas Sarkozy, has been fighting to bring down the numbers. Using heavy repression, specifically radars, it's exactly what he has done.
Not everyone is happy, certainly not those that are about to lose their driving license (like me, but that scare is now over), or those that like riding their motorcycle fast.
But one thing is certain, France is no longer the bad boy of the classroom. Below you'll find the 2006 statistics for Europe. The figures are deadly accident per million inhabitants.
Notice:
1. France is the "best" of the latin countries
2. France is still close to double that of The Netherlands
3. Belgium is way of the scale... why?
Motorcycles are still in a bad way. Motorcycles represent 1% of the traffic in 2006, but 16.5% of the victims. Guys are worse off than gals; 3 out of 4 deadly accidents involved men. And finally, young kids represent 13% of the population, but constitute 27% of the deadly accidents.
So, if you're a young male motorcycle rider... beware!!
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