Machismo also affects behavior behind the wheel, not only in the sometimes offensive comments towards female drivers. A misunderstood virility often leads men to reckless driving with dramatic consequences.
The French Victims Association
The statistics, in fact, are unappealable. 84% of fatal traffic accidents are caused by men. 93% of drunk drivers involved in accidents are men. 84% of permits withdrawn for serious infractions are from men. Of the total road fatalities, 78% are men. This overrepresentation of men is even more exaggerated in motorcycle accident victims: 94% are men. For all this, it is concluded that women have an eight times lower risk than men of dying in a traffic accident.
The “Drive like a woman” campaign is carried out on the internet, through social networks, and also through posters, for example in the subway. The ads include a QR code to expand the information with statistical data. Victims
The president of the association, Julien Thibault, gives an almost anthropological explanation for male recklessness behind the wheel, which is not an excuse to refuse to correct the error. “The man always went into combat to protect those close to him,” says Thibault. Today, his maladaptive behavior on the road, often too trivialized, is the greatest threat that weighs on him, his family, his friends and, furthermore, on an innocent person. If he had the same behavior as women behind the wheel, he would save lives.”
It is obvious that bad male driving is not the only risk on French streets and roads. The poor state of maintenance of the road network is a matter of great concern and the subject of complaints in the press. To the lack of investment by the administrations – very evident in the Paris region, despite the proximity of the Olympic Games – are added climatological factors derived from climate change, such as torrential rains and increasingly frequent floods, which deteriorate infrastructure. . The most spectacular recent event was the total closure of a section of about eight kilometers of the A13 motorway, which connects the capital with Normandy, for several weeks, due to cracks in a viaduct near the Seine. The works have not yet been completed and traffic has only partially resumed. There are many complaints about the lack of paint on horizontal signage, the absence of light in tunnels, inconspicuous barriers and other deficiencies that make driving dangerous, also on the Paris peripheral highway.