With the rising tide of fatal accidents on Irish roads stubbornly refusing to turn, a leading road safety expert says Ireland can learn a lot from the French experience where speeding motorists were turned into social pariahs almost overnight, writes Daniel Attwood
Driving through France at the turn of the millennium was one of the worst gambles a European motorist could take - the risk of being killed was only higher on the notoriously dangerous roads of Greece, Portugal and Spain.
This was put down to one factor: the French seemed happy to wear seatbelts and, generally, refrain from drinking and driving, but they were obsessive speeders.
Surveys at the time revealed that 92 per cent of French motorists were in favour of a tougher approach to prevent drink driving, and 85 per cent were in favour of seatbelt regulations.
However, almost half of French motorists said speed limits should be left as they were, despite the 8,000 people a year that were being killed on the roads.
So, excessive speed remained an accepted part of driving in France. "The French motorists were called the bad pupils of Europe," explains sociologist Jean-Pierre Cauzard, a leading French expert on the psychology of motoring, and the interaction between road users and social institutions. "But I don't like this analogy because the road is not a classroom. If a pupil makes a mistake in class, he is not killed."
At the turn of the millennium, there were many parallels between France and Ireland: road deaths running above the EU average; social acceptance of speeding; a high percentage of fatal accidents occurring on rural roads; young male drivers being the highest sector of society killed; and, above all, dramatic action was being demanded.
However, as in Ireland, during the first two years of the millennium, the carnage on France's roads continued. Then one event: the killing of five firemen, who were hit by a speeding driver, seemed to provide the catalyst for action.
Days after the accident, during his Bastille Day speech in July 2002, President Jacques Chirac, who had recently won a landslide re-election campaign, declared that the top priority for his second term in office was to end the carnage on France's roads.
His speech had a profound effect. During his election, Chirac had won the support of over 80 per cent of the voters. And this popularity meant he had an audience willing to heed his demands for action.
"His speech shocked the French people," remarks Cauzard. Suddenly the head of state was demanding that motorists take responsibility for their actions. Excessive speed was killing people and speeding drivers were to blame.
But changing motorists' attitude towards speeding was only one part of the success story. Enforcement, as in Ireland, was also crucial.
Until then, the French authorities' lacklustre approach to traffic law enforcement had been heavily criticised by safety campaigners. But immediately after Chirac's speech, attitudes to enforcement changed and new regulations were introduced which opened the way for automatic ticketing. Drivers are now automatically fined and docked penalty points for speeding (in France motorists begin with 12 points and have them deducted for offences).
The effects were dramatic: within weeks there was a significant decrease in the average speeds throughout the country and, by the end of the 2003, the death toll was down almost 20 per cent.
At exactly the same time, Ireland introduced penalty points and was also enjoying a fall in fatal road accidents. The one significant difference, however, is that in France the drop in road deaths has continued, whereas in Ireland the lack of any permanent change in driver attitudes and the hit-and-miss approach to enforcement has resulted in deaths creeping up again.
The change in driver attitudes is the most significant factor in ensuring that road deaths continue to decline in France, says Cauzard, who today addresses a road safety conference in south Dublin.
"In France what happened was a change in driver behaviour," he explains. "Speeding was regarded as a national sport, but now people regard it as antisocial."
Cauzard believes Ireland should learn from France: "You need to change the social conscience and you need enforcement, both at the same time. It's the old saying - you need a carrot and you need a stick."