The number of people who died in October on the roads of mainland France increased by 15% compared to the same month in 2019, the reference year before the pandemic, Road Safety said on Tuesday. In detail, 295 people died in one month, more than half of them outside the urban area. Among them, 122 were motorists, 58 pedestrians, 34 cyclists.
This figure is down very slightly compared to the same period in 2021 (298 dead) but up compared to 2019 (257), details in a press release the National Interministerial Observatory for Road Safety (ONISR).
More deaths overseas
The number of injury accidents recorded by police and gendarmes, which only constitute a part of road traffic accidents, on the contrary recorded a drop to 4,720, i.e. 868 less than in October 2021 and 415 fewer than in 2019. The authorities had taken exceptional measures in the spring of 2020 in response to the spread of Covid-2019, temporarily reducing travel and encouraging telework.
In the Overseas Territories, 33 people died in a road accident last month, eight more than in 2021 over the same period and ten compared to 2019. The number of injury accidents recorded by law enforcement also stands at 269, up from 244 in October 2021 and 259 in 2019.