She passed away on July 20 in the Gers, but we only learned the news at the beginning of the week. A last fit of modesty? Louisette Texier was used to it, even if she was nicknamed the “bulldozer”. Modest and flirtatious, did she not declare, after one of her rally victories, that she was bound to “arrive before the others to have time to put on make-up before the finish” ? But she was not only modest, she was also of the caliber of those who never flinch, and never flinch. Because Louisette has come a long way. Precisely from Armenia, where she was born in 1913.

France after the Armenian tragedy

She was two years old when her father was hanged. The Armenian genocide perpetuates its massacres and the one who is still called Harpiné Hovanessian is hidden and hastily taken to an orphanage in Istanbul. She left it ten years later to join other homes, in Salonika in Greece, then in France. But at fifteen, she wants to be free. She runs away, trades her name for that of Louisette Texier and becomes a successful dancer in the cabarets of Montmartre.

Years go by and the Germans occupy Paris. Louisette no longer performs on stage. She enters into resistance, hides Jews and participates in the liberation of Paris. Its post-war period will be calmer. She married and gave birth to two children. But her taste for independence takes over and she divorces. Louisette has an idea: she wants to sell jeans for women. A trade that the Americans are barely starting. In France, no one has ever risked it. She opened a shop in Neuilly in 1956 and it was a success. But at the same time, another passion will emerge in his life and occupy him for a long time. She attends a motorcycle race where a pilot friend has trained her. it’s love at first sight for motorsports.

She will train and learn not to ride a motorcycle, but to pilot a car. A few months later, she became the first woman to enter the Monte-Carlo rally, driving a Simca Aronde P60 Montlhéry. Until 1964, she went through rallies, and participated in the Tour de France auto with her Jaguar MK2. In 1963, she finished second overall and went on to win victories across Europe. The car ? This is his thing “the rest, I didn’t care. I never even rode a bike”, she will explain at the end of her life. But auto racing would never occupy him full time. At the same time, she is developing her boutiques. She will own, and manage, three until her retirement, which she deigns to take, at 90 years old.

Before that, she will have raced her last rally, that of Kenya, at 80 years old. Retired in the Gers, Louisette will once again put on her helmet for a karting session with her grandson. She was then 104 years old. She passed away this summer after a long journey of 108 years. Obviously, she will be missed by her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren. But Louisette has lived a life like no other. An exceptional life because, after a chaotic start, it was the one she had chosen for herself, the one she decided to lead as she pleased, to the end.

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It is the obligatory passage for all car or motorcycle drivers: the test of the highway code! It is not only a theoretical exam, essential to obtain a driving license. It is above all a text that has laid the groundwork for a harmonious cohabitation on the road.

Born 100 years ago …

The Highway Code was born in the form of a Decree on May 27, 1921. This “ regulation of the use of roads open to public traffic “Is promulgated at a time when animal-drawn vehicles, carts and the first cars came together. It was Jules Perrigot, president of the Automobile-Club Vosgien who, in 1904, started writing 10 articles to define some rules. This will culminate in the creation, the 1^is June 1909, of a National Commission responsible for proposing a real text. For 100 years, the Highway Code has undergone many changes, but fundamentals such as priority on the right or overtaking only by the left are still relevant. Just like the minimum driving age set at 18.

… but some rules were enacted long before!

« There have always been rules with the objective of organizing a sharing of the road that allows everyone to travel in complete safety. », Explains to AFP Marie Gautier-Melleray, the interministerial delegate for road safety. In 1725, a royal ordinance imposed “ an identification plate on the coaches to be able to find their drivers when they are the subject of complaints »And the number of horses was limited according to the number of wheels of the carts and their weight to preserve the state of the roads. In 1804, Napoleon 1^is makes it compulsory to drive on the right-hand side of the road (previously we drove on the left) while in 1912, the first signs (4 in total) flourished on the road between Paris and Trouville.

A constantly growing number of vehicles

The evolution of traffic at this time is exponential. If we only count 350 vehicles in circulation in 1895, there were 53,000 from 1910 and six times more in 1920 ! According to historian Jean Orselli “ At one point, cohabitation had become untenable. From then on, each municipality took measures to regulate traffic in its own corner. There were monstrous nonsense so we needed national rules “. It was also at this time that the first motorists made their voices heard to challenge these rules.

Researcher Anne Kletzlen reminds AFP that the first associations of drivers win their case by repealing the speed limit imposed by decree in 1899 and which limited the speed to 30 km / h in the open countryside and 20 km / h in town. Every motorist is simply asked to stay ” master of his vehicle “And” always walk at a moderate pace when crossing built-up areas and whenever the path is not perfectly clear or visibility is not guaranteed in good conditions ».

Numerous evolutions

Over the years, the highway code has evolved establishing various rules such as the maximum blood alcohol level (1970), compulsory seat belts (1973 at the front, 1990 at the rear), the implementation of speed limits (1974), the introduction of the points license (1992) and the probationary license (2004) or even the regulations relating to electric scooters (2020).

An essential sesame

If the highway code establishes rules, we must also learn them! It became compulsory in 1957 to pass the driving license.. Questions are then asked by an examiner. In 1972, the exam changed to multiple choice format with slides.

Of 638 questions divided into 11 themes in 1998, the code now has 1,000 (all reviews) divided into 9 themes. During the theoretical test 40 questions are asked to the candidates. Are you knowledgeable about the rules of the road? For the knowledge, test your knowledge.

An anniversary stamp

To celebrate the centenary of the highway code, road safety has teamed up with La Poste to launch a philatelic stamp, 600,000 copies of which will be on sale from June 14, 2021.

TO READ. The Nationale 7 in the spotlight of a collection of La Poste stamps

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In France before the 1970s, the habits on the roads were not at all the same … A motorist today who would return to the past would be completely lost! At this time, exit the compulsory belt for example, the helmet on motorcycles or even the 130km / h required on the highway. So many elements that seem unthinkable to us today!

On the same subject

It was in 1972 that the peak mortality is reached. With nearly 18,000 deaths this year, it is a sad record which will never be exceeded again with the new measures which will be introduced in the following years. Since all these new rules, the mortality curve has steadily fallen, and the mortality figures last year stood at 2,550 dead. A significant drop in road deaths while in the meantime, traffic continues to climb and intensify, especially in town for example. A double success for road safety and ultimately road users!

In all the measures that have been taken to bring down these figures, three have caught our attention, so much they were decried at their beginnings.

Wearing a seat belt and being afraid of getting stuck

One of the measures that had made a lot of talk about her remains the compulsory port from seatbelt, first in the front in 1979 then generalized on the rear seats also in 1990. When its wearing became obligatory in the front on July 1, 1973, “60% of the French were against, recalls the psychologist Jean-Pascal Assailly , expert with the National Road Safety Council (CNSR).

Indeed, in the newspapers of the time, some feared to get stuck by the belt in the event of an impact and die charred in their car. “Nobody can know if it will be useful or harmful”, even asserted a pseudo-expert on television. Fortunately, today there is no debate at all about wearing a seatbelt …

A long-contested point license

In 1992, the oldest drivers among you undoubtedly remember the famous points permit. His arrival had aroused great protests from motorists, who considered the withdrawals of points much too severe. At the time, several voices were raised against this “motorist hunting policy“. Even though the figures speak for themselves today, they still fail to convince motorists’ defense associations, for whom the “all-repressive” symbolized by the automatic withdrawal of points according to the offenses defined by the highway code is not a determining factor in the constant decrease in road mortality.

If we take stock today, according to Road Safety this “innovation”, coupled with the deployment of automatic speed cameras, has made it possible “to save more than 85,000 lives in a quarter of a century”. Laurent Carnis, specialist in the analysis of public road safety policies, affirms “that there are often among the drivers who denounce these innovative measures the idea that the State infantilizes them, prevents them from driving as they want, restricts their freedom and wants in a way to police them“.

The introduction of automatic speed cameras

October 27, 2003 marks the first day of a new era, that of the automatic repression on speed, which will only intensify. At the time, all motorists but also press articles criticized the start of a long list of repressive measures. We were far from imagining that since then, these measures have been generalized on very many roads and expressways but also, more recently, in the heart of cities. The establishment of these radars has nevertheless contributed, with supporting evidence, to the continuing decline in the number of road deaths.

Small reminder of the key dates of the automated control:

• December 18, 2002: Interministerial Road Safety Committee announcing the establishment of a system of “automated control and sanction”.
• July 14, 2002: Statement by the President of the Republic Jacques Chirac: “I would like to mark this five-year period with three major projects, but which are not in stone. It is first of all the fight against road insecurity. I am absolutely horrified that French roads are the most dangerous in Europe. “
• October 27, 2003: First “fixed speed” radar inaugurated at the Ville du Bois in Essonne on the RN 20.
• January 26, 2004: First “on board speed” radar put into service.
• July 3, 2009: First “red light” radar put into service at Vésinet in Yvelines.
• 15 mars 2011 : First discriminating radar at Saint-Ferréol d’Auroure in Haute-Loire on the RN 88.
• June 20, 2012: First “medium speed” radar installed on the RN57 at Beure near Besançon.
• 26 mars 2012 : First “level crossing” radar installed at Jonches in the Yonne.
• 19 mars 2013 : First “new generation mobile” radar (radar car) put into service
• July 4, 2015: First “autonomous” radar

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