Over 16,000 people were killed in French road accidents that year for the first time. The peak killing time was July and August, precisely when I was travelling.
The most murderous départements in France in 1971 were Alpes Maritimes, where I started, and Bouches-du-Rhône, where I spent eight hours beside a motorway slip-road trying to leave Marseille.
I have no recollection of seeing a single accident. The statistics suggest that I was fortunate.
France, from the late 1950s to the early 1970’s, was one of the most dangerous countries in western Europe in which to travel by car (or to cross a road). Between 1960 and 1971, road deaths doubled.
France has made huge progress in road safety in the last half century. Final figures due next month will confirm that the death toll on French roads in 2023 was (Covid lockdown years apart) the lowest since 1926 – less than 3,200 people killed.
Deaths on French roads are still more frequent than in the UK or Germany or Spain. They are no longer the murderous “exception française” of the 1970s.
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When people tell you that France is “no longer France” and that everything was better in the old days – the streets safer, the food better, the grass greener, the headlights yellower, the baguettes crunchier, the wine cheaper, the cheese smellier – remember these figures.
In 1971 and 1972, France lost the equivalent of a small-to-medium sized town each year to deaths on the road. And that was only the deaths. Many more thousands of people were badly injured or crippled for life.
In 1972, the year after my epic journey, the road deaths peaked at 16,545. If fatalities up to 30 days after an accident are included, as EU rules now demand, the annual French death toll in 1971 and 1972 was more like 18,000.
The French state and media decided finally that the killing must stop. One road death helped to prevent many tens of thousands.
Marie-Antoinette Ion, wife of the Gaullist Prime Minister, Jacques Chaban-Delmas died in a road accident in 1970. On the day that he left office on July 5th 1972, Chaban-Delmas created a ministerial committee for road safety.
One of its first actions, in March 1973, was to make a TV public service advert which showed aerial footage of all the 16,000 inhabitants of the town of Mazamet in south-west France lying in the streets playing dead.
Between 1973 and 2002, road traffic in France almost tripled but the number of road accidents and victims halved. The public awareness campaigns helped. So did new laws which now seem basic.
Speed limits did not exist in France outside towns until 1973. Wearing seat belts in the front seats of cars was not compulsory until 1979. Helmets for motorcyclists were optional until 1976.
Road deaths continued to decline steadily in France in the last quarter of the 20th century, as they did in most countries. Safer cars, safer roads (ie motorways) and improved medical treatment all helped.
By the start of the 21st century, however, France once again fell far behind neighbouring countries, including the UK. Efforts to enforce the speeding laws by the centre-left Lionel Jospin government in 1997-2002 were howled down by centre-right politicians as an assault on public liberties.
In 2002, when he was re-elected President, Jacques Chirac performed a hand-brake turn on centre-right attitudes. He declared road safety to be one of the “missions” of his second term. Road traffic laws, and especially speeding laws, would be (shock-horror-outrage) rigorously enforced.
In the late 1990s, when I came to live in France, there were practically no radar speed traps, You could do 160kph on the motorway and 130kph on two lane roads with almost no fear of punishment. Not that I ever did, of course. Oh no.
Chirac changed all that – the greatest domestic achievement of his strangely empty 12 years in the Elysée Palace. Speed traps are now common, to the fury of the rural French. They were one of the causes of the Yellow Vest movement in 2018-9.
Excessive speed is the biggest single cause of road accidents and road deaths. Since the speed traps appeared, the death toll has resumed a steeper angle of decline.
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Last year, 3,170 people died on French roads (using the EU 30-day rule but excluding overseas départements). This was the lowest figure since 1926 when there were 809,000 vehicles on French roads. There are now 38,900,000 cars and vans and trucks – almost 50 times as many.
So all is well on the roads of France? Much better, certainly. French roads are more than twice as safe as US roads. But driving in France is still more dangerous than in most neighbouring countries.
According to the World Health Organisation, France suffers five road deaths a year for every 100,000 people. The UK has 2.9 – almost 50 percent less. Germany and Spain have 3.7, Switzerland 2.2 and Italy 5.2. The USA has 12.9.
France is a big and empty country. It has, proportionately, more small rural roads than Germany or the UK. Two-lane, country roads are far more dangerous than motorways or urban roads. That may explain the continuing discrepancy. By my experience, however, the problem is not just French rural roads. It is also French rural drivers.
Why is it that if you try to obey the speed limit, your back bumper is magically converted into a giant magnet for other cars?
PS I did eventually get to Cherbourg in August 1971. My most dangerous moment was my last night in Normandy. I slept in a field and woke to find that a herd of cows was standing almost on top of me.
What are your experiences of driving on French roads? Do you find French drivers terrible? Share your views in the comments section below
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I’ve lived in south-west France, for four years. Drivers here are patient, courteous, law-abiding and, if anything, they drive slowly, compared with UK drivers.
The one French legacy that needs to be abolished, though, is ‘priorité à droite’. Although, on most main roads, drivers do not have to stop to let side road drivers emerge, there are p.a.d. roads in most towns, here, and even in some cities.
This means having to check every side road, to see if you have to let drivers out.
What nonsense!
Yes, things have changed for the better, though at the expense of my boy racer tendencies.
Improvements can still be made in urban areas. For example, educating drivers to stop at pedestrian crossings and enforcing no parking within, say, 15 metres of crossings.
Ultimately, continuous education will improve things further.
I live in Provence, Vaucluse. Here all cars have magnets in their rear bumpers and it almost becomes dangerous to brake to evade dangers ahead.
Another puzzle, for me, is that speed limits of 70 and above are vigorously enforced, but speed limits of 30kph in villages are not. As a result, one sees motorcycles and cars going at 60 on a 30kph area limit, putting lives in danger. Does anyone have an explanation of why the authorities ignore the 30kph speed limits in urban areas?
We have lived in rural Normandy for the past 15 years and the most annoying thing about driving on the country roads is that most French like to drive in the middle of the road especially around blind bends. The amount of times we have had to swerve to avoid colliding with them is a joke. I am not sure if they have a death wish, or don’t want to slow down, or don’t expect anyone else to be on the road.
Another fault is parking. Most French don’t seem to have any sense about parking their car in a safe spot. You can be driving along a street with only two parked cars and you can guarantee they will be situated right opposite each other making it very difficult to pass. Car’s are left on bends and blocking in other cars just so the driver doesn’t have to walk a few extra meters.
Also having nice flat roads with very few pot holes does come at a cost in France as there are constant roadworks throughout the year with sometimes three or four separate road or lane closures within a few kilometres. The diversions put in place always led you on a mystery tour as they very rarely actually tell you where the diversion is taking you!!
Otherwise living and driving here is a joy!!!
Indeed good news! But not discussed is the safety of cycling. Statistics? My observations ( 5 years cycling in Vosges & Moselle compared to 50 years in US & Ireland) would be that rural France is by far safest. When passing, seemingly 90% of drivers provide cyclists with wide margins, and they wait to do so until there’s a clear view. Related to laws and enforcement or cultural? French respect cycling almost as much as they do art, the preparation/eating of food, and conversation.
On my first hitch-hiking trip in France in 1970, I remember passing a car with the following sign in the back window:
En vacances. Pas pressé. Doublez.
Like you, John, I never witnessed an accident in that month of July.
In Paris now, the main danger is bicycles, which ignore red lights, rather than cars. Educating cyclists should be a priority.
We were there also for the great reduction in traffic deaths and we also recall that Sarkozy, as minister of the interior, probably deserves some credit, although no one can say a good word about him. Here’s an honorable mention: https://www.vie-publique.fr/discours/131400-declaration-de-m-nicolas-sarkozy-ministre-de-linterieur-de-la-securi
I’ve lived in a village in the Hérault, bordering the Aude, for nearly 7 years now and I’ve had more near-death experiences while in a car here than I’ve ever had during my 20-odd years of driving in the UK. I see examples of sheer idiocy daily, such as individuals trying to overtake a line of cars, all doing the speed limit, in the face of oncoming traffic. Just last week…
…a cyclist was killed outright in a head-on, “high-speed” collision with a car just outside the small town of Olonzac. My partner, who travels to work every day on his moped, passed the scene just after the emergency services had arrived and is still traumatised by what he saw. Although details of the accident are scarce, I’m assuming that the cyclist was hit as the driver accelerated into the wrong lane to overtake.
And don’t get me started on French drivers and roundabouts!!!
when cycling, I often have to think for the motorist. For example, when I see an oncoming vehicle and hear another coming up behind me and calculate that we are all going to pass each other at the same time, I start wobbling. This always assures me of the motorist’s due consideration and sometimes abuse but heyho better than lying in a ditch.
Why are French drivers actually taught to signal left when going onto a roundabout, They’re not HGVs on multi lane rondpoints? I understood that if you were turning right or going straight on this was unnecessary, with a right turn given as you pass the previous turnout. So many drivers around here (SW) are still indicating left when turning off at the first exit, unless of course they’re exempted from indicating (Audi, BMW or Chelsea tractor drivers}.
I remember travelling down to the south of France with my family in the 1960s. We did not use motorways and the RN roads often had three lanes with the one in the middle for overtaking both ways. We came across many accidents. My parents always asked us kids to look away but I do remember seeing a dead man lying on the road near a crash. I also saw a chap sitting in the car with his broken arm hanging out of the open window. Once, a car pulling a caravan overtook us. I saw a woman in the caravan cradling a baby. About an hour later I saw that caravan smashed to pieces at the side of the road. I do hope the mother and child were not in it at the time of the accident. As soon as I was old enough I took my car to France., The first time, I headed straight to Paris so I could negotiate La Place de l’toile. Very exciting. I now take a motorhome and still enjoy driving on French roads.
And how about the véhicules sans permis that seem to provoke mad overtaking?
We travel regularly both locally and also back to the UK. In our rural location I am sure that too many drive around the quiet lanes more than slightly the ‘worse for wear’! Given the lack of local Gendarme, I think that many people just treat driving after a few drinks as an acceptable risk.
The biggest factor for us rural dwellers is just the lack of traffic. You can often drive for 15 / 20 minutes and not see another car. Does that cause complacency…possibly.
To give some credit to the French drivers, on the autoroutes I find them better than either the British or the Americans (I have lived in all three countries); no middle-lane hogging like the British, and normally indicators are used correctly with no overtaking on the inside (unlike the Americans). Mostly country roads are a delight to drive on, due to the lack of traffic, but perhaps this is part of the problem, as suggested above.
My wife is French, I am a Commonwealth expatriate (ex-British colony so left side driving, road rules, road culture) and we have lived for 7 years in the Commonwealth and 5 years now in France. We both agree unanimously that the French are terrible drivers on multiple technical levels including the human level of common curteousy (which is not so common on French rural nor urban roads).
My comment on countryside driving … is it illegal for someone over the age 12 to drive a tractor on the road!
This reminded me of a funny story: On a recent trip to France I went on a tour to Mont Saint-Michel. During the minivan ride from Paris, I commented to the guide/driver that the French drivers were so polite and considerate. He looked at me like I was insane. I explained that I live in Los Angeles – the freeways (motorways?) here are utter mayhem compared those in France.
I live on the border of Vendee (85) and Deux Sevres (79) in a very rural area. Between noon and 12.30 when folks are racing to their lunch, and between 5 and 6pm when they are racing home from work, it is normal to encounter vehicles coming in the opposite direction in the middle of the road. The answer is to keep one’s speed down and have your headlights illuminated at all times even if it is a bright sunny day.
It has been a theme among our friends just how bad French drivers are with the exception of their motorway lane discipline. However they appear to be taught bad practice especially their use of roundabouts. The lack of use of indicators by the French is legendary; an inability to think ahead and predict what is going to happen so how to prepare and position themselves on the road; few of them know the dimensions of their car and they’re generally hopeless at reversing a car.
One thing not mentioned is alcohol. It used to be quite acceptable to drive after a long lunch, and no one was expected not to drink if they were driving. Now drink drive laws are much more vigorously enforced and apart from the occasional weaving vehicle at about 4pm on a Sunday drink driving has greatly reduced, which must contribute greatly to the reduction on road deaths.
While there may be speed limits now on roads where none once existed, I’ve found it challenging in the rural Limousin to cope with an 80km limit on VERY narrow, and often VERY windy roads. On one lane-and-a-half road that we take, with sudden blind curves, drivers blithely shoot around those curves in mid-road, requiring sudden life-saving swerves. Still: the roads always seem to be in excellent repair, traffic is rare, and we rarely see roadside litter.
French drivers are so impatient , tailgating is the norm and unable to pass when you slow down using indicators to let them go. But regions vary and those around Nice take the top prize for the craziest , most impatient, most dangerous drivers in Europe I reckon
I live in the Netherlands which is generally safe on the roads and rules driven. However we frequently holiday in France – especially the Alps in both winter and summer. To get there we have to traverse a lawless Mad Max wilderness known as “Belgium”. The sigh of relief when we cross into France or back into NL on the return journey! I find driving in France a breeze in comparison, with the autoroutes especially smooth and swift. Anyway just thought I’d mention it!
Coming from the US, where drivers either don’t know the laws or don’t care and have fits of road rage, moving to France in 2022 I LOVE driving here. I chuckle at the comments about how bad the French drivers are, but then the statistics show the truth–5 deaths in France per 100000, but nearly 13 in the US!! Nobody mentioned Rome, that is the craziest driving I have seen… except for maybe Costa Rica.