When they heard the news this Thursday, the Vinci Autoroutes agents were seized with fear. Once again, one of their number had just been hit by a vehicle on the motorway network. Enough to rekindle a collective trauma, nine months after the terrible accident which cost the life of patrolman Tony Nellec at La Turbie. This time, no fatal outcome. But the scenario is chilling and arouses legitimate indignation.
Barriers lowered
It was 11:40 a.m. this Thursday when three Escota patrol boats intervened on the access ramp to Nice airport (n°51) of the A8, direction Nice-Cannes. A vehicle lost debris in this large curve. They clear the road, dressed in their fluorescent yellow uniform, their van parked at the entrance to the integration lane. The barriers on both access routes are lowered. However, a motorbike will go around them.
He tries to dodge
The biker arrives from the roundabout located behind the CADAM. Maybe he got on the sidewalk to be able to pass. Still, he enters a “construction zone”. An agent sees him coming towards him. He allegedly signaled the motorcyclist to stop in order to avoid the debris. “Our employee dodged it. And he was hit despite his dodge,” laments Bertrand Wipf-Scheibel, communications director at Escota. Despite this, the motorcyclist did not stop and fled.
Hurt and shocked
Paul, 30, was hit in the left leg and ankle. He suffered from a sprain and has a hematoma. His colleagues and the firefighters immediately came to his aid and evacuated him to the Arnault-Tzanck hospital in Saint-Laurent-du-Var. If his life is not in danger, but the injured agent is also shocked.
Stubborn trauma
Paul and his colleagues work in the Provence Côte d'Azur district. A unit damaged on March 3, when Tony Nellec, 54, died and his colleague Eric was seriously injured. The survivor has undergone several operations since. Convalescent, he has still not been able to resume his activity. “We remain deeply marked by this accident,” underlines Bertrand Wipf-Scheibel.
The wanted biker
The gendarmes from the departmental road safety squadron (EDSR 06) are looking for the motorcyclist. The Nice motorway platoon is responsible for an investigation into “intentional violence against a person holding public authority with a weapon by destination” and “hit and run”. It is difficult to believe that the motorcyclist did not realize that he had hit a pedestrian. The investigators are particularly sensitive to motorway safety: two of their comrades were also injured on March 3 at La Turbie.
“Preserve these men in yellow who are watching over your safety!” »
Vinci Autoroutes and its three agents had to file a complaint following this new accident “intolerable”insists Bertrand Wipf-Scheibel, communications director at Escota. “We are not even in a pattern of non-compliance with a patrol intervention, but in an intrusion into a construction site zone, while the barriers are down. It is unbearable!”
At the same time, almost a thousand kilometers away, a Vinci Autoroutes van and its trailer were violently hit by a truck in Eure-et-Loir. No injuries. But this brings to 42 the number of vans hit this year on the Vinci network. The motorway operator also deplores four personal injury accidents… including three victims in the Alpes-Maritimes.
Since last June, Vinci Autoroutes has been exhibiting its damaged vans as part of a shocking campaign, entitled “When are you going to hit?” Objective: remind people of the safety rules when approaching a vehicle in intervention (slow down, move away, change lanes if possible). “Living together means respecting common rules,” recalls Bertrand Wipf-Scheibel. “They are there to protect you: protect these men in yellow who watch over your safety all year round, 24 hours a day!”
