Tributes paid to Jacques Chirac’s leadership on road safety

ETSC’s French member Association Prévention Routière has paid tribute to former French President Jacques Chirac who passed away last month, hailing his ‘engagement and courage’ in improving road safety in France.

After Chirac’s re-election in 2002, he announced that road safety would be one of the three main priorities of his second term

Within a year, a new road safety law brought in sweeping changes including provisional licenses for young drivers and a network of automated speed cameras.

According to an OECD report on speed and crash risk, published last year, between 2002 and 2005 road deaths in France decreased by 25-35% in rural areas, 38% on urban motorways and 14% on urban roads.

In the decade 2003-13, speed cameras prevented 23,000 deaths, according to Sécurité Routière.