Crossing or Straddling (incorrectly marked "touching") the Solid White Line?

In 20017/18 Death on UK roads 1700 during the same period in France nearly 100% more at over 3300.
This may indicate that some of the French drive in a more reckless and dangerous fashion.
Madame Wood, who is French, believes that some of her fellow conducteurs transform into selfish @rseholes once they are behind the wheel and believe they own the road.

I just think that the lack of enforcement by the cops to be partly responsible. There are no proactive mobile traffic police stopping and reporting and too much reliance on speed traps and radar.

Some years ago here in the Gironde they used to erect a life size black cut out at the roadside where a death had occured - It was shocking and sobering sight.

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And the key word in your post is “some”
 not all French drivers as implied by others but some!

It would also be interesting to note which nationalities are caught up in serious accidents. I imagine it would include plenty of foreigners including Brits.

Dan - I agree that the Death Toll is horrendous both in UK and here in France. However, it would be useful to see some sort of breakdown of figures by nationality of the drivers causing these Deaths.

The figures of the Death Toll, by themselves, do not in any way support the claim that one nationality is worse than another
 IMO.

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I expect some do because the far greater and less crowded road network allows them to let the inner F1 pilot out. Also people routinely do far longer journeys by car (in terms of distance rather than time) so you would expect there to be more accidents. I have only a 55km round trip to work every day but there’s an upside down car on the verge or in the ditch every week/10 days on that road.

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Is there something in the make-up of the average French person that alters their mental state from calm and laid back to madman when they get behind the wheel?

Personally I think there are many reasons for a higher death rate on French roads compared to the UK, drink driving is not seen as a great taboo, seat belt use is often ignored and as Vero has mentioned less crowded roads encourage not adhering to speed limits.

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Absolutely agree re number of kms covered and speed possible. You simply can’t get out of second gear in most parts of the south of England now!
We have a car in the ditch on a weekly basis on the road we live on. It has bends you see and most drivers (and sorry but round here., ‘they’ are all French as it is not a very international community!) seem blissfully ignorant of those pesky things called brakes. Especially the Audi drivers :slight_smile:

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A very nasty accident, fatal for some concerned, here in Dordogne a couple of years ago was a when a landrover going too fast and in the middle/on the wrong side of the road ploughed into a tree, there were too many passengers and half of them weren’t wearing seatbelts.
The driver was a British ex-policeman.

Had the guy been drinking? I find a lot of Brits my age seem to think it’s ok to drink and drive. My limit is a petit pression or a small glass of red if eating. My adult children and their partners will not touch alcohol if driving and will test themselves next morning if they have drunk the previous evening. I think most youngsters are more responsible than many of their parents.

This?

Sadly, the 3 main reasons for Deaths on French roads (recent report) listed Alcohol, Stupifiants, Excessive Speed - in no particular order - as the main causes of the Deaths.

The Nationality of Drivers was not mentioned.

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An ex policeman though, that’s shocking. He must have attended so many similar accidents.

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I think Brits get sucked into the drinking and driving culture here especially the retired who perhaps did the same thing when younger. After football and badminton matches everyone drinks and jumps into their cars without a second thought.

I find most Anglophones / Dutch near me think nothing of getting behind the wheel after drinking. The additional issue is that the ‘supplier’ of the booze (or loaning of a car to a drunk driver) can be held legally complicit in any accident / injury / death caused by the drunk driver. I know of a particulary distressing live case that I won’t go into here - suffice is to say it’s horrendous for all involved.

Anyway - here’s the legislation covering complicity:

En matiĂšre de complicitĂ©, l’article 121-7 du Code pĂ©nal prĂ©cise qu’“est complice d’un crime ou d’un dĂ©lit la personne qui sciemment, par aide ou assistance, en a facilitĂ© la prĂ©paration ou la consommation”. À ce titre, le fait de prĂȘter sa voiture Ă  un conducteur alcoolisĂ© tombera, par exemple, sous le coup de la complicitĂ©.

Code PĂ©nal - Article 121-7

Yes, I know a few. Respectable in every other way. V. Odd.

It’s the same with golf Tim - Most of the male Brits belonging to the 3 clubs we have belonged to here think nothing of polishing off a couple of beers and a bottle or two of the redstuff after a competition. However, of late, some of the French golf societies tend to enjoy a long boozy lunch followed by quite a long drive home.

It is because the limit is so low in Switzerland.
We are very close to Switzerland here and we see them coming home from a weekend in Paris or going down to the coast.
They also drive large cars.

If my memory serves me correct My friend was pulled over and fined by the Gendarmes when his tractor and trailor had 5 vehicles queing behind him. Not a happy Bretton.
May be the rules have changed now.

Do you know for what offence your friend was fined? :thinking:

This link gives just some of the rules for agricultural vehicles:

I agree that the problem is a lack of enforcement Dan.
We live next door to the village Boulangerie and have a grandstand view of the customers vehicles coming and going. Around 40% don’t wear a seat belt, and about 25% leave the engine running on an unattended vehicle. Then of course there is all the total blocking of the trottoir by parked vehicles, and all of these things are caused by a total lack of enforcement.

Here in Vendee there is a particularly bad history of summertime fatal accidents of which the root cause is young drivers and alcohol. The youngsters all pile into one vehicle to make the journey to the nightclubs on the coast, and then at 2 to 4 in the morning they make the return journey via country roads. A bend is miscalculated and the vehicle leaves the road, often hitting a tree or rolling over in a ditch. It’s a single vehicle accident with no witnesses to summon help. Even if one of the occupants is able to use a mobile phone, there is often no signal in the country areas, and even if there is a signal, the caller often does not know where they are. The result is that people die in ditches and fields before some passer by after dawn realises that help is needed.
It’s tragic, it’s stupid, and it happens because everyone knows that the likelihood of being stopped by the police or gendarmes after dark is zero.

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Good Morning.

As It is nearly twenty years ago, my recollection is Farmers were supposed to pull over and let the queuing vehicles pass. As he is no longer with us I cannot ask.

A bit hot here in the Lot 451/2 in the sun and 39 in the shade.

Bye for now.

David.