An analysis of traffic accidents and COVID-19 impacts in France and Japan from 2015 to 2021: Insights and Trends

Preventive COVID-19 measures affected road traffic in France and Japan. This study explored the consequences on road traffic safety of these measures. A retrospective, descriptive cohort study with road traffic safety data extracted from the French (Observatoire national interministériel de la sécurité routière) and Japanese (National Police Agency) databases for 2015–2021. Road death figures by month, age, and vehicles, and injuries by age from 2015 to 2021 were extracted. In France, the percentage reduction of road deaths in 2020 was 20.5%. The decrease was 56.7% and 32.7% during the two lockdown periods. The road death reduction was observed for car occupants (23.4%), motorcyclists (22.0%), and pedestrians (19.0%). Outside the lockdown period, bicyclist deaths increased by 15% compared to 2017–2019. Injuries decreased by 20.8% for the year. In Japan, the overall road death reduction was 11.7%, with a reduction of 19.9% during the state of emergency in April-May 2020 and 29% in August 2020. Injuries decreased by 20% for the whole year 2020. There were reductions in road deaths for car occupants (18.6%), pedestrians (14.8%), and bicyclists (3.2%), but an increase for motorcyclists was observed (6.6%). In association with the reduction of road traffic, speeding violations increased. Preventive measures had a positive impact on road traffic safety figures.