The 32 vans are lined up along the emergency lane.
They are no longer, for some, a pile of sheets placed on four wheels.
This is the shocking image that motorists can discover, since Wednesday, on the rest area preceding the Saint-Arnoult toll barrier (Yvelines) on the A10.
Until November 3, Vinci Autoroutes found a rather effective way to educate its users to adopt responsible driving behind the wheel.
An "exhibition" of crashed intervention vehicles, for all to see.
Since the beginning of the year, these patrol vans have been involved in accidents on the network, "while the women and men in yellow intervened with drivers in difficulty", confides the management of Vinci.
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The traffic is already dense this Thursday morning on the A10 and it will intensify this weekend on the occasion of the school holidays of All Saints. Stéphane, who makes the return trip Vitré (Ille-et-Vilaine) - Villejuif (Val-de-Marne) every day, takes a break before heading to Brittany. "I visited the open-air exhibition, it's really impressive," confides this father, stopping in front of the line of patrol vehicles.
This awareness-raising operation, entitled # Exposés, comes after two new vans were struck on the network last week, two days apart.
"These 32 vans are all unacceptable testimonies to the inattention or drowsiness of the drivers," continues Vinci.
Yet they are yellow, equipped with clearly visible arrows and signaling devices.
"The slogan" impossible not to see them anymore!
”Is displayed in capital letters.
"You have to really respect this staff who save lives every day"
While moving between Paris and Chartres (Eure-et-Loir), Olivier did not take the time to wander between the carcasses of vans.
But he said he was sensitive to the message, especially since he himself witnessed an accident in 2011. He was driving his Audi when a heavy goods vehicle struck an intervention vehicle from the rear. between Bourges and Vierzon (Cher).
The damaged vans are visible on the rest area in front of the Saint-Arnoult (Yvelines) toll gate on the A10, until November 3.
LP / Stéphane Corby
“I got some debris from the truck on my windshield,” he recalls.
The patroller had time to get out of the way and I parked.
The driver of the truck was injured in the face.
I found myself doing traffic in the middle of the freeway with a yellow vest.
You have to really respect these people who save lives every day.
"
"There are too many careless motorists", abounds Arnaud, left him, with his family, from the North at 4 am to reach Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales).
“There are those who stay in the middle line, those who tap on their phones and some truck drivers who even watch videos… We notice their differences.
"
"I was hit head-on, at 110 km / h, and the vehicle sent me 10 meters"
The studies carried out by the Vinci Autoroutes Foundation indeed highlight worrying behavior and a certain indifference towards those on the motorway, with dramatic consequences.
According to Vinci, 70% of French drivers do not respect the safety distances, 53% forget to slow down in a work zone and 69% do not respect the safety corridor.
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In its "shock exhibition", Vinci also delivers the testimonies of these 1,000 men and women in yellow who take turns 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, nicknamed "the guardian angels of the highway".
Their names are Claude, Jacques, Sébastien, Hélène or Cédric and are all miraculous.
“Six years ago, I was hit head-on by a vehicle whose driver, dazzled by the sun, took her eyes off the road for a few moments to grab her pair of sunglasses, says Cédric, for example.
She swung the steering wheel at the last moment but still came crashing into me.
It went very quickly: I barely heard the brakes when the vehicle was on me.
I was hit head-on, at 110 km / h, and the vehicle sent me ten meters.
There is no inevitability but there is always a mistake that is made.
It's annoying to think that some drivers do everything except drive… ”