2020 will have been the year of the start of the pandemic, confinement and… speeding on the road.
This is confirmed by the results of traffic violations that occurred two years ago and made public on Tuesday by the National Interministerial Road Safety Observatory (Onisr).
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When the population, to face the coronavirus, was barricaded at home, from March 16 to May 10, 2020, and that national and local curfews followed, we remember, in fact, that the forces of the order had alerted the French to the new sport.
Taking advantage of traffic almost at a standstill or greatly reduced, many had fun increasing the peaks of speed on deserted roads.
Significant destruction of radars
Thus, the number of speeding more than 50 km / h recorded by the police has jumped by more than 43.5%!
Or 25,897 recorded two years ago, against 18,044 in 2019. Overshoots of more than 30 km / h, they have increased by 9.7% (153,134 against 139,541 in 2019).
As for the excesses recorded by automated radars, the differences are even more striking.
Infractions for overtaking exceeding 50 km / h increased by 66.2%, the report notes, to 35,970 against 21,646 in 2019.
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By aggregating all the excesses, large or small, the observatory recorded 13.3 million speeding offenses in 2020, an increase of 3% compared to the previous year. But this overall increase must be put into perspective, recalls the Onisr. Because if 2020 was hit by the epidemic, 2019 had its share of disturbances, in particular with the movement of “yellow vests” and the significant destruction of radars which caused the number of PVs to drop. This 2020 increase
“is a return to the values of 2018 following the 2019 decrease, in part due to the vandalism of the automated control system and the reorganization of the activity of the police during the social movements of the beginning of the year 2019 ”
, write the authors of the study.
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Conversely, confinements, curfews as well as the closure of places of festivities during the year 2020 had beneficial effects on road users, who drank less while driving. In 2020, offenses fell by 19.1% compared to 2019. Breathing alcohol level (rate between 0.25 and 0.8 g / l of blood or between 0.25 and 0.40 mg / l of exhaled air) even fell by 32.2% compared to 2019. Crimes (rate greater than 0.8 g / l of blood or 0.40 mg / l of exhaled air) are also on the decrease: 101,307 against 115,385 in 2019, a decrease of 12.2%. But this less festive life did not have a positive effect on drug use. Driving after drug use increased by 5.1%, with 82,127 offenses recorded two years ago, compared to 78,137 in 2019.
In total, including all deviations on the road, motorists committed 24 million traffic violations in 2020, which caused them to lose 11.4 million points on their license.
This is much less than in 2019, when the 12 million mark had been crossed.
