Her name was Maryam and was only eight years old. His name was Youcef and he was twelve. Sofia, she will never blow out her sixth candle. In just eight days, ten children were killed on the road. Four died in a collision on the RN2 in Laon (Aisne) on Tuesday, July 28. Eight days earlier, five minors had died in a car accident on the A7 in the Drôme and a five-year-old girl had been killed on a pedestrian crossing in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis) by a driver. Behind the abominable count of these young lives cut short, there are parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents broken by mourning.
As soon as she took up her post, the new interministerial delegate for Road Safety Marie Gautier-Melleray told us bitterly: "The road is the leading cause of death among those under 29 and a quarter of fatal accidents affecting those under 14. occur in summer ”. On the eve of the most important crossover of the summer, it therefore calls for absolute "respect" of the rules in terms of speed, alcohol and portable driving. "The problem is that we are helplessly witnessing a rise in individualism at the wheel," rants the president of the League against road violence Chantal Perrichon. It is imperative that there are more controls on the road. "
Inattention, speed, but also the state of the roads
"Shocked" by the death of all these children, the lawyer specializing in victims' rights, Me Jehanne Collard, also deplores "the increase in aggressive and uncivil behavior" since the end of confinement. “As long as these people do not change their vision of cars and road safety, we will not win the fight,” she says. Some drivers still believe that the measures aimed at reducing the number of fatalities at the wheel are an attack on their own freedom and see the rules of the Highway Code as a repressive system ”. While 618 people died on the roads of France during the summer of 2019, road safety noted in June and July a considerable increase in excessive speeding.
“The car is an object that can kill and that should awaken our consciousness,” sighs Chantal Perrichon. But these messages seem to have a hard time bearing fruit with die-hards of speed or those who continue to use their cell phones while driving. A study carried out by the Association of French Motorway Companies has just shown that 20% of fatal accidents (twice as many as two years ago) on this network, however deemed to be safe, are now due to inattention, particularly use of screens!
Some elected officials point to their side the state of dilapidation of roads in France. “Over the past ten years, funds devoted to road maintenance have decreased considerably,” deplores the deputy (related LR) Pierre Cordier. In a letter signed with forty-nine other deputies and which he has just sent to the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, the parliamentarian affirms that "17% of the un-concessioned national road network is seriously damaged" and that at least "25 000 bridges are in poor structural condition ”. "It is urgent to act, pleads the elected representative of the Ardennes, because the deterioration of the roads has a negative impact on road safety. "