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Undeniable. The French have a road network that relies on tens of thousands more km of dangerous rural roads than ours and have always been good at killing themselves in cars. We tend to be better at killing vulnerable road users in urban environments. Enforcement has also slipped back in the last few years in France. The British also don't have any political role with the same power and insulation from public opinion as a president. But enforcement here is weak and our points system can be played incredibly easily. Our standing in imternational road safety has also slipped severely in the last few years. Lots of swings and roundabouts.
benborp-
Our standing in imternational road safety has also slipped severely in the last few years.
What do you mean by that?
We've got - and have had for some time - pretty much the lowest number of deaths per capita or per mile driven of any country in the world of any size. (The Scandinavian nations are better, but not by much, and the Dutch are pretty comparable - but they all have much smaller populations.)
Agreed that much of this may be down to vehicle improvements rather than changing driver behaviour (though those improved vehicles aren't only sold in the UK) and that we do comparatively badly with vulnerable road users - but the overall number of deaths here is low.
AFAICS, there's not a lot of slippage given that we're still very close to the statistical top.
jsabine
The French thing was great and it certainly wouldn't hurt for call me Dave to do the same thing, but it's worth noting that the latest data shows France has almost 50% more road deaths per km traveled than the UK:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate
So improvements ought to be easier.