While the trend was down in 2019, the number of deaths on the roads of metropolitan France increased by 9.7% in January compared to the same month last year, with 260 people died against 237 in January 2019 , announced road safety on Wednesday.
This increase mainly concerns young people aged 18-24 as well as drivers of scooters, bicycles and cars, while mortality for motorcycles is stable, and that of pedestrians is decreasing, according to the same source. Conversely, in Overseas France, road mortality fell in January 2020, 16 people lost their lives in road accidents, 4 less than in January 2019. As for the injured, a sharp increase net (+ 18.4%), or 5,628 people, was recorded in January 2020.
Figures that come to thwart a historically low trend
Mortality on the roads of mainland France followed an upward trend between 2014 and 2018, but has subsided since 2018. These figures come to reverse the historically low trend recorded in 2019 on the roads of France. The past year has indeed been marked by a historic low in the number of deaths on the roads of the metropolis. With 3,239 killed, Road Safety had recorded nine fewer deaths for 2019 than in 2018 in mainland France, a very slight decrease of 0.3%.
The government had attributed this annual stagnation in mid-January to the entry into force in 2018 of the lowering to 80 km / h of the maximum speed allowed on secondary roads.
The measure, unpopular with the elected officials of certain municipalities and conspired by the "yellow vests", should nevertheless be subject to relaxation. On a case-by-case basis, an increase to 90 km / h on certain roads is now possible.