The motorway companies will grant free to all priority vehicles firefighters intervention, starting with the Alpes-Maritimes, before extending the measure to the rest of France, announced Thursday the French Association of the companies of highways (Afsa). An agreement was signed Thursday in Nice between Vinci Autoroutes and the departmental council of Alpes-Maritimes. Until now, firefighters were only exempt from the toll if they intervened on the motorway network. Apart from the Alpes-Maritime, conventions are "being signed" in other departments, said Afsa, which brings together some 20 private concessionaires.
Vehicles equipped with electronic toll badges
"The concession companies propose to equip free priority vehicles of SDIS (Departmental Fire and Rescue Services) with specific tolls associated with number plates to ensure a fast passage in the tracks." It will be up to the managers of the SDIS confirm, a posteriori, passages made in operation and which will not lead to any billing, "she detailed. This gratuitousness was introduced in the law by an amendment to the law of 2018 by the Nice MP Eric Ciotti (LR), still awaiting a decree of application.
The electronic toll badges have been in existence since 2001 and the firefighters paid: "There was a long-standing use in place", justifies one in the entourage of the president of Vinci Autoroute Pierre Coppey, who came to Nice to sign the agreement with the SDIS Alpes-Maritimes. "We take this opportunity to optimize the device: before, we let pass the sight of the flashing light.Now we will equip all vehicles with a badge so that they pass without stopping," according to the same source.
A measure of "common sense and general interest"
"Private and financial interests will never be greater than the general interest," said Eric Ciotti, speaking of "a measure of justice" and "common sense and general interest". For the SDIS Alpes-Maritimes, it is 125,000 euros in savings in perspective, the equivalent of 320 helmets last generation or over two years, the purchase of a van fire pump trendy forest.
Expressing his "satisfaction" on the merits, Colonel Grégory Allione, President of the National Federation of firefighters of France regretted that "it takes so much time". "The firefighters of France carry out an intervention every seven seconds to cope with this operational demand, we must go fast, but the highway allows not only to go fast, but to move safely" he says.
"In the absence of a decree, we remain on the register of conventions and good will, and this seems so obvious to us that it seems rather surprising that we still have to pass conventions and have voluntarist approach of firefighters in each department to conclude, "he said, asking the question of the complete free for firefighters. "When returning from an intervention, take the highway to get back faster, it allows faster recovery of operational vehicles for other interventions," he pleads.