The passionate, road rage-prone French are being told to take a lesson in driving civility from their more self-disciplined and courteous Brit counterparts.

An excerpt:

French road safety group (AFPC) which is organising the "courtesy behind the wheel day", involving a variety of road safety awareness events, say the French need to take a leaf out the "British recipe" book.

"With their legendary courtesy and civility and an active prevention policy since 1970, our British neighbours have the safest roads in Europe and has a mortality rate far lower than in France."

"It's not about converting our Latin temperament into British phlegm but rather looking at this model example to learn a few things on driver attitudes and the ingredients behind this success."