“Encouraging” results: the number of road deaths in France in 2024 falls below the 3,200 mark

Un accident sur l'autoroute A75 à Saint-Georges d'Orques (Hérault). Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

Le nombre de morts sur les routes en France durant l'année 2024 a été annoncé ce jeudi. Des résultats "encourageants", selon le ministre François-Noël Buffet.

Road deaths remained almost stable in mainland France between 2023 and 2024, while overseas, they increased by 4%, Road Safety revealed on Thursday, recalling that user behavior was a factor in 90%.

In mainland France, a total of 3,190 people lost their lives on the roads, an increase of 0.7%, and 233,000 people were injured (-0.8%), details the National Interministerial Road Safety Observatory (ONISR).

The year 2023 had proven to be “historical: it was the first time that we went below the 3,200 deaths mark. 2024 remains below this trend but with a very slight increase compared to 2023, we have a small percentage increase of 0.7%”, notes Florence Guillaume, interministerial delegate for road safety, during a press conference.

In the overseas territories, the increase is higher (+4%) and the number of people who died reaches 241. The mortality rate of motorized two-wheelers, which represents a third of these victims, is increasing, as is that of cars and pedestrians.

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“Less practice”

In terms of age, 18-34 year-olds are the most affected in the overseas territories: 103 killed in 2024 compared to 82 last year.

“Among the 18-24 years old, young drivers have less control of the vehicle, they have less practice”, explains Florence Guillaume.

In France, young people are also among the most at-risk profiles, followed by the elderly. And men are more affected than women.

In 2024, 2,477 men died in a road accident, or 78% of those killed. Men also represent 75% of serious injuries and 84% of those presumed responsible for fatal accidents, “ratios equivalent to those observed in 2023”, notes the ONISR.

According to the delegate, “men take a little more risk on the road to overtake or because of alcohol, there is a bias of overconfidence”.

By mode of transport, car occupants still represented less than half of those killed last year (48%). There were more deaths among motorized two-wheelers (726 in 2024, compared to 706 in 2023), and also more among pedestrians (451 killed, or 12 more than in 2023).

“Encouraging” results

As for cyclists, whose mortality rate in 2022 had increased by 30% compared to 2019, the last year before the Covid pandemic, the number of deaths has stabilized (222 in total in 2024, compared to 221 the previous year), as has the number of seriously injured (2,550). By type of road, 60% of deaths are outside built-up areas.

François-Noël Buffet, Minister to the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, notes that by remaining below the 3,200 deaths mark in France, the results “are encouraging” but that “it is our collective responsibility to act to reduce these human tragedies”.

“You still have one in four fatal accidents that is linked to alcohol, one in five to drugs, a little over one in 10 on the phone, one in three to speed: obviously, there are still things to be gained”, argues Florence Guillaume, for which “the behavioral factor plays a role in more than 90% of accidents”.

The government launched a mission against violence on the roads last October, after the death of a cyclist in Paris, killed by a motorist suspected of having deliberately run him over.

The final figures for Road Safety should be published at the end of May.