Western Europe A New Summer of Fatal Traction

By Peter Hawthorne

"What an impudence!" fumed Ernst Hinsken, a member of West Germany's Bundestag. "Irreconcilable with the hospitality that should be shown by the host country!" complained West German Transport Minister Jurgen Warnke. The high-octane grousing in Bonn was directed at Italy, which last month imposed an experimental 110-kilometer-an-hour (68 m.p.h.) speed limit on its autostradas and an even more impudent limit of 90 kilometers (56 m.p.h.) on other roads. Yet even as Italian officials debated last week whether to return to the old 140-kilometer (87 m.p.h.) highway limit when the trial ends early next month, police records indicated that the speed reductions were saving lives. The Interior Ministry reported that 1,067 people died on Italian roads between July 1 and Aug. 15, down 4.4% from a year ago.

The timing of the experiment was not accidental. Each summer, as millions of Europeans pile into their cars and zoom to their favorite vacation spots, thousands end up in grisly pile-ups. "Every vacation it happens the same way," says a Paris insurance clerk. "You have types who load their whole family into a small car and try to drive all night, until they fall asleep. You can look at the map and know exactly where they are going to run off the road. It's always the same place."

Statistics vary, but Yugoslavia (12 deaths per 10,000 vehicles per year) and Portugal (11 deaths) appear to head the grim list of annihilation on Europe's roads. The U.S. rate: 2.6 per 10,000 vehicles. Italy reduced the limit after a dire weekend last month, when road fatalities totaled 95. According to a poll by the daily Corriere della Sera of Milan, two-thirds of Italians favor the speed cutbacks.

To prepare for the hectic Feast of the Assumption weekend that ended last Monday, French officials advised local authorities of their power to suspend the licenses of reckless drivers on the spot. A magistrate in one high- accident district promptly seized four licenses in less than 45 minutes. Zealous public servants suspended more than 2,000 licenses during the three- day holiday.

Excessive speed and alcohol are the major contributing factors to road accidents in Europe. In France and Italy many drivers drink wine with their meals at franchised rest stops, then happily hit the road. All too often they hit whatever is on it as well.

Italy decreed last week that drunk drivers will face the loss of their licenses and could be fined up to $350 and sentenced to a month in prison. In Paris an attempt to set up random police checks was abandoned some years ago, after pressure from city restaurateurs. In Britain, where the fatality figures (2.5 per 10,000 vehicles) are among Europe's lowest, 20% of road deaths are caused by intoxicated drivers. The government is now considering police requests for "discretionary testing" and is debating stiffer penalties.

The anomaly in Europe is West Germany, whose freeways have no speed limits. Partly because of laws requiring seat-belt use in front and back, and because of mandatory driving-school instruction, the fatality rate is remarkably low: 2.4 per 10,000 vehicles last year, the best result since 1953.

But life in the fast lane is still costing West Germans dearly. The number of road accidents is appallingly high and is expected to top 2 million for the first time this year. Says Otto Schily, a member of the environmentalist Green Party: "It's not only our compassion and mourning over the thousands of dead and hundreds of thousands injured that make a speed limit imperative. It's simple economic sense too." Unlike some of its hell-driving citizenry, though, the Bonn government refuses to put its foot down -- on imposing a speed limit, that is.

With reporting by Leonora Dodsworth/Rome and Rhea Schoenthal/Bonn, with other bureaus