“Over the period 2021-2022, the OFB recorded a total of 90 hunting accidents (bodily injuries related to the use of a hunting weapon), including eight fatalities”, announced the OFB. “Among these, two concerned non-hunter victims”.
“Despite a slight increase in accidents this season, the trend of a general decline observed for 20 years is confirmed and, for the second consecutive year, the number of hunting accidents is less than 100”, specifies the press release.
In 2020/21, 80 accidents including 7 fatalities were recorded, the lowest record for 20 years. From 2001 to 2010, the number of accidents fluctuated between 146 and 203 per season, including 15 to 31 fatalities.
“The accidents, like the incidents recorded, confirm that they are, for the vast majority, the result of human fault linked to non-compliance with basic safety rules”, continues the OFB.
The main causes identified remain “failure to observe essential safety rules when hunting large game”, such as non-compliance with the angle of fire, poor handling of weapons or shooting in the direction of roads, homes or hiking trails.
“Hunting safety is a priority for the OFB, which works, through its missions of issuing permits, hunting police or raising awareness, to sanction or change dangerous situations”, assured the director. general of the OFB, Pierre Dubreuil, quoted in the press release.
“Given the statistics, efforts must be continued, in particular with regard to the avoidance of fire in the direction of roads and homes,” he said.
In February, the death of a 25-year-old hiker, killed in Cantal by a 17-year-old hunter during a wild boar hunt, put hunting back at the heart of the presidential campaign.
After this accident, some candidates, the ecologist Yannick Jadot and the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the lead, had called for its practice to be banned on weekends and during the holidays.
