Securite Routiere

[Tony F Dordogne]

I've just received the first three months accident statistics for the Dordogne (24) with comparisons for previous years.  January was a nightmare, 10 more injury accidents that 2007, 19 more serious injuries and 1 more death.

What is really worrying is that in January 2006, 24% of deaths on the road were caused through alcohol, driver being over the limit.  In January 2007, there were 26% involving alcohol, but in January 2008, 3 of the 7 killed were in some way alcohol related, or 42%.

Whilst the actual numbers may be small, the percentages are far too high and just shows that drunk driving continues to take a toll on people here in France.

The good thing is that the raw figures for February and March are down on the same months last year and are also down on a cumulative basis, year to date, but the percentage of drink driving incidents remains constant.  However, there seems to be a trend for rising deaths and injuries amongst youngsters riding those mobile hairdryer things that they scoot about on.

I'm not posting this other than to indicate to people that drink driving is still a problem - so take care out there folks, especially with the tourist season coming when accident rates rise inexorably.

[Val_2]

Up here in Brittany this year has seen many deaths already on the roads mainly due to loss of control whatever that may be but probably alcohol or excess speeds. Old people are the worst and some are going down the express route the wrong way and having head on crashes or just generally not concentrating when pulling out of junctions into the path of an oncoming vehicle. Its the twenty somethings that upset me having two of that age as its such a waste of life.