French motorists collect good driving awards

Four drivers in Dordogne were pulled over by police - and given a €50 voucher for petrol as a reward for good driving. All four were French living in the department.

It was part of an initiative set up by the local Prefecture, Gendarmerie and the France Bleu Périgord radio station and followed a government announcement in January, which included ways to reward good drivers among a series of measures to reduce fatalities on France’s roads.

As reported, police in an unmarked car were on the look-out for four good drivers on Friday. They followed each one for around 10 minutes, watching for speed, indication and position on the road.

A France Bleu journalist was travelling in the police car and the first driver stopped for good, rather than bad behaviour, was interviewed live on air.

He was 46-year-old Pierre Pecouyoul, who was on his way to work in Montpon from Périgueux, a journey he has been doing morning and evening for 17 years. He told the reporter he was surprised when he saw the flashing lights on the car: “I didn’t think I had broken the law, but thought maybe there was something wrong on the car, like a faulty headlight.”

The operation will be repeated five more times during the year, with four drivers rewarded on each occasion. In December they will be invited to a ceremony at the Prefecture. Dordogne prefect Anne-Gaëlle Badouin-Clerc told France Bleu Périgord that it was important to remember that road safety is not just about those who break the law but also about those that respect others and the rules: “We must get away from the idea that road safety is only about punishment. We often hear that it is impossible to do so, but this operation shows the opposite.”