France Rolls Out Fresh Anti-Drug

Campaign As Fatalities Soar

`                      The video emphasizes on the loss of reflexes by a person under the influence of drugs. PHOTO: SECURITE-ROUTIERE.GOUV.FR15 NOV - “It can be fatal”. This is the slogan of a fresh anti-drug-driving campaign planned by the French road safety authority.

The goal is to make motorists aware of the consequences of drug use. The latter has been the cause to an increasing number of road crashes in France.

Video

Cinemas and television channels in France will see the arrival of a new video aimed at alerting motorists to the risks incurred in the event of drug consumption. The video shows a person tossing a key chain to another man who drops them on the floor. It metaphorically illustrates the loss of reflexes of a driver under the influence of drugs. It intends to make viewers understand that “drugs make you a danger to yourself and a danger to others”. “Because it increases reaction time, reduces the ability to make rapid decisions and modifies awareness of one's environment, consuming drugs, in addition to being prohibited, seriously impairs the ability to drive,” the Road Safety Authority (Securite Routiere) alerted on its website.

Fatalities

According to Florence Guillaume, interministerial delegate for road safety, the campaign aims “to remind people that there is a high mortality associated with addictive behavior, whether drugs or alcohol”. According to Guillaume the proportion of drivers testing positive after a fatal accident at night or on weekends has risen to almost 30%. According to the Securite Routiere stats 672 people were killed in 2022 in a road crash involving a driver who had taken drugs or one in five fatal accidents. In 91% of these cases the driver was a man and in 58% of cases he was between 18 and 24 years old.