the essential
A crew of firefighters who were securing an accident on Tuesday on the ring road said they saw a tow truck deliberately rushing towards them. One person was heard.
They were not injured but were “scared and revolted”. Three firefighters responding late Tuesday afternoon on the Toulouse ring road were, according to a complaint filed, subjected to a violent “attempted attack”.
Shortly before 6 p.m., an accident involving three vehicles had just occurred at the Sesquières interchange and firefighters were securing the area. “A crew was setting up markings, in accordance with the operational procedure, in order to secure the victims” and the intervening personnel, describes the SDIS 31 (Departmental Fire and Rescue Service) in a press release.
As the operations took place in the right lane, one of the firefighters signaled vehicles arriving in the area to take the other two lanes.
It was then that he “sees a tow truck approaching at high speed. He signals to slow down and gives the order to lift part of the markings”. The firefighter thinks, logically, that this tow truck is expected at the scene of the accident.
They move away at the last minute
This was not the case. “Quickly, the three firefighters understood that the vehicle was not slowing down and that it had no intention of moving away,” continues SDIS 31. “They then moved away at the last minute and avoided the vehicle.”
According to them, the driver does not stop. He goes straight ahead, “to end up moving to the left carrying a cone and a warning triangle”.
To crown his more than dangerous behavior towards firefighters busy rescuing the victims of an accident, the man allegedly punctuated the scene with a middle finger before fleeing.
Three complaints
The three victims, two men and a woman, went to file a complaint in the evening. “An investigation is open,” confirms the Toulouse public prosecutor’s office.
Laurent Pille, deputy departmental director of SDIS 31, estimates that “twenty attacks” have already occurred since the start of the year. A figure up compared to the same period in 2023. “There is always a feeling of revolt to think that as firefighters we can suffer this type of attack”.
In this case, a person was identified and interviewed before being released. His story would be different from that of the firefighters. Investigations continue.
