Reckless Italians, rude Greeks on European roads: survey

PARIS - Agence France-Presse

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Italy, the country that gave the world the Ferrari, has produced Europe's most reckless drivers, a survey released Feb. 12 found, while Greeks were judged the rudest on the continent by fellow Europeans.
      
Thirty-eight percent of 10,000 Europeans questioned in the survey released by French motorway operator Vinci described Italians as driving dangerously, a figure that rose to 58 percent among Italian respondents.
      
Greeks came in second with 20 percent of those surveyed declaring them the most irresponsible motorists.
      
And while 56 percent of the Europeans surveyed admitted to road rage incidents such as insulting other motorists, 74 percent of Greeks admitted to such behaviour, cementing the poor reputation of the southern European country's drivers.
      
At the other end of the scale, Swedes were judged the most responsible European drivers, cited as such by 37 percent of respondents, followed by Germans (27 percent) and British and Dutch drivers, who were tied with 11 percent of positive responses each.
      
Those surveyed by market research firm IPSOS on behalf of Vinci were drawn from 10 different European countries: Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and asked about their driving habits.