According to the national inter-ministerial road safety observatory, 26% of people who were killed in road accidents overseas between 2017 and 2019 were killed while one of the drivers involved was driving without a valid license. This rate is only 6% in metropolitan France. It is in Martinique (41%) and French Polynesia (33%) that the highest proportion of fatalities in accidents with a driver without a valid license is observed.
If Saint-Martin is not at the top of the ranking, that does not mean that motorists are all in order. At the end of November this year, the gendarmes noted 313 offenses for lack of a driving license. Or practically one per day. These are often people who have never taken the exam or foreign nationals who do not hold a French driving license. Some are relapsing. Driving without a French license on French territory is an offense, the people thus checked are then summoned to the local court of Saint-Martin.
Another type of offense regularly noted, the lack of insurance. Since the start of the year, 208 people have been checked while driving a vehicle without it being insured.
The fact of not being the holder of the license or being insured encourages some motorists to flee after having committed an accident. This year, 136 hit and run offenses were recorded. Another reason that pushes to flee or not to want to stop at a control, driving under the influence of an alcoholic state. 230 drives under the influence of alcohol were recorded this year during police checks.
Finally, 200 offenses have been noted for not wearing a helmet since the start of the year. The number of pilots thus controlled could triple according to the gendarmerie. But often the two-wheelers manage to pass the controls or turn around in the sight of the gendarmes. The national interministerial road safety observatory notes that “overseas, 18% of two-wheeler users killed in an accident in 2019 did not wear a helmet, against only 2% in metropolitan France. This proportion is 57% in Saint-Martin ”.
(soualigapost.com)
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