Are there more deaths on departmental roads at 90 km/h?

The increase of the speed limit to 90 km/h in certain departments continues to spark debate. According to a recent study, it has led to an increase in the number of deaths.

Since the enactment of the LOM law in December 2019, local authorities have the power to revert departmental roads back to 90 km/h. A significant number of them have immediately seized this opportunity. According to a report by the Ligue des conducteurs dated July 2022, 90 km/h has been reinstated on 53,000 km of departmental roads, spread across 45 different departments.

These decisions have fueled a debate that has never stopped since 2018, the year when the government lowered the speed to 80 km/h on two-way roads without a central separator. The study recently conducted by the National Interministerial Road Safety Observatory will please supporters of this measure, as it tends to show that mortality rates are higher on roads that have been returned to 90 km/h.

The work of the ONISR involved comparing the figures from 2021 with those from the 2013-2017 period (before the 80 km/h implementation). It shows that mortality has decreased everywhere, but the reduction is less significant in departments that have reintroduced a 90 km/h limit on part of the secondary network. Note that not all did so proportionally: in some local authorities, more than 80% of departmental roads have been reverted to 90 km/h; in others, this figure drops to less than 15%.

A two-digit increase in mortality on departmental roads at 90 km/h?

“The increase in the maximum authorized speed (VMA) to 90 km/h in 39 departments resulted in an estimated 74 lives lost in 2021, based on the month when this decision was implemented. This corresponds to a +13.1% increase in mortality“, explains the ONISR.

2021 is not necessarily a relevant baseline, as the figures are skewed by pandemic management measures. Based on the results obtained, the ONISR therefore sought to assess what impact the speed increase could have in a normal year. “In a ‘typical’ year, the increase of the VMA to 90 km/h across 39 departments could result in approximately 89 additional fatalities,” reads the study. A 13.1% increase in mortality recorded in 2019 across all non-urban roads outside motorways in mainland France corresponds to 254 additional fatalities.

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