The prefecture's defense and civil protection service organized a major inter-service exercise on the new portion of RN 102 on the evening of Tuesday, November 5.
A few hours before the partial opening of the expressway between the A75 and Largelier, an unusual agitation reigned on this new portion of RN 102, Tuesday November 5. Numerous flashing lights illuminated the dark night, starting at 7 p.m., for several hours. Before its commissioning, this road was in fact used for an exercise organized by the defense and civil protection service of the prefecture. Around sixty people, whether firefighters, gendarmes, Dir staff, repairers or representatives of state services in Haute-Loire, were mobilized.Inter-service exercise, mobilizing firefighters, gendarmes and staff from the Massif Central Directorate, under the watchful eye of the prefect's chief of staff, Benoît de Lagarde, on the RN102 dual carriageway between the A75 and Largelier.
“The prefecture wanted to work on an inter-service theme,” explained Benoît de Lagarde, chief of staff to the prefect, who supervised the operations. The principle is simple: set up various scenarios to allow services to train, practice at least annually.
Several scenarios planned
This involved devoting short periods of time to interventions (less long than the real ones) in order to study the consideration of all the issues for the different services: the investigation, the findings, the practices to free up the axis , securing the accident site… “All the issues that must be taken into account to avoid further accidents,” confided a representative of the prefecture’s road coordination.
“Several scenarios are planned. With different parameters that change: the direction of traffic, the lane concerned and the order of arrival of the responders, between gendarmerie, Sdis and Dir. Each time, there is a very square diagram, a protocol to follow. The idea is in particular to check that there is no loss of time and good security.”
Long-awaited, this Haute-Loire expressway is finally open to traffic
And the representative of the prefecture added: “This also allows us to take full possession of the infrastructure”, which should see around 14,000 vehicles circulating per day, as recalled by the sub-prefect, Emmanuel Fèvre. The third objective was not the least: “Every year, colleagues from the Dir are hit. We have a particular point of vigilance which is focused, on this exercise, on arrival, on the device and departure.”
Receive our news newsletter by email and find the highlights of police and judicial news in your region
For these maneuvers, two starting bases had been set up, in the Intermarché car park and near the Total station in Lempdes-sur-Allagnon. At the end of each scenario, a debriefing took place on one of these bases. By trade initially, then all together. For the first scenario of the evening, the firefighters departed from their fire and rescue center, to judge the arrival time. And in each scenario, while the participants were busy on one side or the other of the RN 102, observers analyzed the interventions, including the sub-prefect of Brioude, Colonel Marboutin of the gendarmerie, Colonel Robert of Sdis and those responsible for the Massif Central Directorate.
Feedback
“At the end of all the scenarios, a final feedback is carried out at the Dir de Brioude operations center,” explained the representative of the prefecture’s road coordination.
And in two weeks, a new cold feedback will be made, to give the conclusions and allow us to establish an action plan in order to improve, each in their profession and collectively.
“There, the Dir had a particular objective: to test the marking doctrine and insertion into the emergency system and departure. These road exercises are obligatory once a year, whether they are carried out on the table or in the field. “
At the end of a first debriefing, Benoît de Lagarde showed himself satisfied with the exercise, Tuesday evening: “It is interesting to have an inter-service operational discussion. It is very rich. And it notably allows us to reach an agreement on a common language. They say that a soldier must train as he wants to act. That's really it. By practicing the protocol, it becomes more automatic. , but doing it at the same time is valuable and very educational.”
Pierre Hébrard
