Road Safety – Road Safety is relaunching speed warfare –

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Road Safety relaunches speed warfare

Road Safety - Road Safety is relaunching speed warfare -

What is the target of the new road safety campaign? Easy: speed. Ministers change, visuals change, everything changes … except for this simplistic postulate systematically associating speed with danger. Let’s change, yes, but what ?

"Even for the best of reasons, there’s never a reason to go fast. Let’s change". This is the message of the new road safety campaign which will be broadcast from tomorrow on radio, TV and billboards. The visuals change, the ministers follow one another, the parliamentarians change … but speed is still considered to be the key. main cause of road insecurity. Presented this morning by the Minister of Transport Gilles de Robien, the new campaign (2.4 million euros) is based on two posters, two radio spots and a TV spot. the blindness of those responsible for road safety issues, who taken individually however seem to be rather open people and not devoid of common sense…

Denial of priority
The clip presents a couple at the wheel which grills a priority and – logically – is stuck violently in the car arriving to its right. What do you think is the cause of this dramatic case? The refusal of priority on the right, the most stupidly elementary notion of the highway code? Not at all. Driver distraction? Nay. The condition of the vehicle’s tires, brake wear? You go astray. The cause of this accident is simple, consensual and so practical: speeding! Not even the excessive speed – because it is obvious that approaching a blind intersection at 70 in town is inappropriate, silly and dangerous – but well speeding. You said demoralizing ?

"65% of motorists and 75% of motorcyclists do not obey the limits, but speed is the main factor triggering accidents", believes Remy Heitz (see elsewhere). Why not rather denounce the notion of excessive speed, much more dangerous than excessive speed?"The notion of unsuitable speed is already taken into account, continues the interministerial delegate for road safety: "if you are driving at 50 km / h in the city in the middle of a crowd, you may be fined". Certainly. But then why not have the same reasoning in the opposite direction? A small 200 on a deserted highway, dry and offering good visibility really deserves to be thrown in prison ?

"I also like speed"
"Wanting to reduce the number of victims on the road does not prevent us from being smart. But opening up speed would be a counter signal today", considers Gilles de Robien."You cannot confuse the message, on the contrary you have to concentrate it even if in certain places the limitations may seem restrictive. In the future, technologies based on GPS and Galileo will allow us to modulate the speed in a finer way.". Including on the rise?"Not necessarily … I like speed too, you know, but I prefer life! And if the bikers really want to speed, they pay a half hour of circuit !"

The anti-speed credo is likely to be widely relayed by the National Road Safety Council, which met Wednesday for the first time since its reshuffle: its new president is none other than TF1’s news director Robert Namias, author in 1994 of a report entitled … "Speed ​​and road safety".

A world of suffering
Flanked by a Bernadette Chirac tanned like a yellow coin – the wife of the President of the Republic is indeed one of the new recruits of the Council -, Namias considered that the role of the CNSR was "much more than just advisory". As for Ms. Chirac, questioned about the reasons for her presence at the CNSR, she specifies that"it was Jean-Pierre Raffarin who asked me personally". Of course, road safety has been declared a great national cause by the President of the Republic"and I happen to be his wife", recognizes the First Lady, all blond locks outside, carefully tousled Courchevel style."But above all, I am the president of the Fondation des Hospitals de France and I am in contact with this world of suffering resulting from road accidents, especially in Garches where I go regularly. This is one of the reasons for this choice, I guess", whispers the first lady, putting her sunglasses back on…

"We have a huge information role to play and we must maintain permanent pressure on those who make the decisions", insists Namias. We can bet that despite the presence of a representative of the FFMC – Frederic Brozdziak, unfortunately absent this Wednesday because of a motorcycle accident -, the"pressure"exercised by the CNSR on the government will not shine with a particularly innovative approach to road safety problems … You said" let’s change " ?

Eric MICHEL

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