Question 35872 — road safety

Summary

According to the accident report from the National Interministerial Road Safety Observatory, 116 accidents, including 24 fatalities, were caused in 2019 by a vehicle traveling in the wrong direction on a motorway or a road with separate carriageways. They caused 35 deaths. Drivers aged 75 and over are over-represented in this type of accident, as are drivers under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. Furthermore, some wrong-way traffic is caused by users who miss an exit and then reverse on the highway to avoid paying the toll. Beyond the general addiction prevention measures put in place by road safety, various specific measures have been or will be put in place to combat this phenomenon. A recommendation from the National Road Safety Council was notably adopted during the its plenary session of July 9, 2019. This recommendation proposes concrete preventive measures and is structured around three main axes: the strengthening of signage, such as the strengthening of the installation of the so-called “B1j” sign (no direction traffic sign on a bright yellow background, created by a decree of June 11, 2015) but also the launch of an experiment to harmonize the message indicating the last exit before the toll on the traffic signs positioned at the exit ramps, or the launch of experiments on the use of horizontal signaling to explicitly indicate to users the direction of traffic of the lane on which they are traveling; raising awareness among road users, in particular on the ban on reversing traffic on roads with divided carriageways; prevention and the alert, mainly relating to the “traffic announcement” function integrated into the car radios of certain vehicles. Wrong-way traffic, punishable by articles R. 412-28 and R. 421-6 of the Highway Code, may also be the subject of prosecution for endangering the lives of others if it is demonstrated to be intentional. In view of the preceding elements, it is not envisaged to change the existing regulatory system but to strengthen signaling and information actions for road users, behavioral factors being decisive.

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