France and Italy Curb the Car Maniacs

After decades of dicing with death, the reckless Latin roadhog could be doomed to extinction.

In Italy, as in France, draconian measures introduced in the past couple of months have slashed the death rate and persuaded some of the world's most naturally anarchic drivers to buckle up, slow down and, just occasionally, wait their turn.

The Italian senate is expected to give definitive approval today to a set of provisional measures which have cut the weekend carnage by 35% since they came into effect. Figures released earlier this month suggested that the overall drop was substantially higher.

In France, a new law passed in June raised the maximum penalties for driving offences and introduced 3-year probationer licenses for new drivers with only half the number of points carried by full licences. On French licences points are deducted, from a total of 12 on full licences, for offences, not added as in Britain.

It was the latest in a series of initiatives encouraged by President Jacques Chirac which have cut road deaths by 18% in the past 12 months.

In Italy too the new rules involve a points-based licence. Driving at over 80mph not wearing a seatbelt while talking on a mobile phone - normal cruising mode for many motorists before July 1 - can now lose the driver most of his or her points at a stroke.

The penalty for shooting the lights is five of the 20 available points, and reckless behaviour such as overtaking into a bend or driving under the influence of drink or drugs costs 10.

Licences are withdrawn when there are no points left and the driver must re-sit the test.

The threat has had a remarkable effect, visibly slowing the pace of traffic in the land of the Lamborghini and Ferrari.

The designer Roberto Cavalli, who owns two sports cars, said he loved to "drive fast, shoot the lights and skip the seat belt", but admitted he had had to rethink his habits.

The bill incorporating the changes was passed largely unchanged by the lower house of parliament and the transport minister, Pietro Lunardi, is using a procedural device to speed it through the senate and on to the statute books before the August exodus begins on Friday.

About 6,700 people died on Italy's roads in 2001. Horrifying - but not as grisly as France's death toll of 8,000, which President Chirac called "a national disgrace".

But the French transport minister, Gilles de Robien, who has pushed through a series of new laws and ensured a greater police presence to enforce the existing legislation, believes there has been "a real awakening".

Jean-Yves Salaun of the road safety association Prévention Routière, said: "The president's intervention has made a big difference. But what has really helped most are the increased police checks."

Among other measures, 1,000 new automatic speed radars are to be installed by 2005, and medicals are to be introduced for drivers over 75.

Alcohol is the key factor in a third of fatal French road accidents, and despite a 20-year campaign the proportion has not altered.

The writer Françoise Sagan, who was once given the last rites after a car crash, summed up the French attitude.

"You can die getting hit on the head by a flower pot," she said. "But to die suddenly in a fast car - for a Frenchman, that's a fabulous death."