Since January 1, 2024, 18 people have died on the department’s roads, compared to 7 during the same period last year. Almost always at the origin of these dramatic collisions, “driving errors”, insists the public prosecutor of Orléans. Checks on the roads will therefore be intensified this weekend.
A collective call “to civic responsibility and everyone’s responsibility”.
Faced with the increase in fatal accidents since the start of the year in Loiret, the prefect of the department and the Centre-Val de Loire region, Sophie Brocas, the public prosecutor of Orléans, Emmanuelle Bochenek-Puren, the gendarmerie and the Loiret national police, jointly held a press conference on Friday May 24.
“A massacre”
The tone should become tougher for road users this weekend (May 25-26), and checks will intensify.
“It’s been a massacre since the beginning of the year,” observes Emmanuelle Bochenek-Puren, the public prosecutor of Orléans.
“We are frightened by these figures,” adds Sophie Brocas.
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Eighteen deaths in five months
Since January 1, 2024, 18 people have died in an accident on the department’s roads, “compared to 7 at the same period last year”. Among the victims, 40% were young people under the age of 20 and three cyclists. Eighteen deaths in five months, while the year 2023 alone has 27. And another fatal accident occurred on Friday May 24, in Puiseaux, the fourth in May.
“Accidents are not necessarily more numerous; it is their severity that is more important.”
Philippe Ott (commander of the Centre-Val de Loire gendarmerie region.)
At the origin of these dramatic exits from the road on departmental roads, these collisions on the highway, almost always “driving errors and non-compliance with the highway code”, insists the public prosecutor of Orléans.
A space that must be “shared”
Drugs and alcohol (like this driver arrested at 221 km/h and drunk on the A10!), obviously weigh in the balance, but not always. Sometimes, it is these small “everyday” speed violations, these crossings of white lines, stop signs or the telephone that we tap while driving, “which are the cause of fatal accidents”, insists Captain Emmanuel Massonnaud, at the Loiret departmental road safety squadron.
“Everyone must take into account today the evolution of modes of transport and the fact that the road is a space that must be shared,” continues the prosecutor.
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This obviously applies to motorists – “we are sometimes confronted with unacceptable speeds in built-up areas” – but also to two-wheelers. “Motorists must never forget that other users are less well protected than them, and two-wheelers, particularly cyclists and scooters, must obviously respect the same rules as others,” insists Thierry Guiguet-Doron, the interdepartmental director of the Loiret national police.
“We still see too many two-wheelers who do not respect the highway code.”
The call for vigilance also applies to pedestrians. “We cross on zebra crossings, this helps avoid many accidents, like the one that cost the life of a 78-year-old man in Saint-Jean-de-la-Ruelle,” on February 17.
Immobilized vehicles
“It is also important to remember that the criminal liability of a person responsible for an accident can be engaged even if the victim has also committed a fault,” recalls the public prosecutor.
If controls on the roads will intensify (speed, alcohol and drugs in particular), repressive measures such as the immobilization of vehicles, already put in place particularly during very excessive speeding, should also be more systematically requested. .
Last year, 2,000 licenses were suspended in Loiret.
A still little-known sanction: in 2023, 618 vehicles placed in administrative impounds in Loiret
Sarah Bourletias
