Numbers first. 3,700 driving license suspensions in 2022, in Moselle, including 1,200 linked to driving under the influence of alcohol and as many linked to the consumption of narcotics. This inventory, drawn up by the sub-prefect of Thionville, Philippe Deschamps, alone justifies the reinforced control operation carried out this Tuesday evening, in Uckange, relating to addictive behavior. It was piloted jointly by the gendarmes of the motorized brigade of Hayange, the territorial brigade of Uckange and its municipal police, positioned at the corner of rue des Alliés and rue de Budange at the time of the first exits from the office. .
Narcotics, alcohol… and telephone
The purpose of these checks is nothing new. They are even “daily and carried out day and night”, reports Commander Pascal Furaut, head of the Moselle departmental road safety squadron. On Tuesday, the operation was “muscled” by the reinforced presence of the military in the town. The primary objective: prevention. “The goal is not to verbalize but to reassure by participating in the protection of users. Over the past ten years, in the department and in the gendarmerie zone, 30% of fatal accidents are due to driving under the influence: alcohol, narcotics but also mobile phones, ”recalls Commander Furaut.
If 2020 and 2021 had logically been marked by a drop in accidentology, with the Covid crisis helping, 2022 experienced a rebound. “We have returned to the level of 2019”, abounds Philippe Deschamps. “With an unfortunate particularity, the balance between accidentology linked to alcohol and that linked to narcotics, not to mention the situations where the two addictions are combined. And then, the use of the telephone while driving is too frequent. »
“In the vast majority, people understand the approach and the challenge of these checks”, observes the representative of the State. As a reminder, the annual report on road safety reports 350 bodily accidents on the territory of the Moselle. Fifty people lost their lives there.
