Operation to combat road insecurity in the Gard Rhodanien, “there have been several fatal accidents”

Les gendarmes ont vérifié les papiers des conducteurs arrêtés. C.B.

Friday, September 6, gendarmes from all over the Gard Rhodanien and Uzès took part in a vast operation to combat road insecurity carried out in different sectors of the Gard.

After the creation of the Gard Security Staff, which announced on Thursday, September 5, at the prefecture the heavy toll of fatal accidents in the department since the beginning of the year – 42 people lost their lives on the roads of Gard, 8 more than in 2023 at the same time – a large-scale operation to combat road insecurity was carried out the following day.

Six checkpoints were set up on Friday September 6 in the Gard department. In the Gard Rhodanien, the operation resulted in the mobilization of around ten gendarmes from the brigades, brigade communities and Psig (Gendarmerie surveillance and intervention platoons) from across the sector.

“This operation was initiated by the prefect and prosecutors of Nîmes and Alès” recalled on Friday Captain Jean-François Henninger, deputy commander of the Bagnols-sur-Cèze gendarmerie group, present on the Barjac road, at the exit of Pont-Saint-Esprit, where a first checkpoint was set up was set up in the afternoon. “This afternoon we also have mobile patrols from different brigades of the company“. Later in the evening, the gendarmes were to move to Bagnols-sur-Cèze.

Excessive speed, driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol, lack of a driving license or insurance were among the targets of the gendarmes.

Stopped at a roundabout on the Barjac road, a driver was unable to present his car insurance. “The vehicle is immobilized if the driver does not have insurance. The mobilization will be lifted when he presents his insurance" explains the captain. "In the event of an accident, a driver without insurance has total liability" he reminds. “There are more and more insurance defects”.

“Several deaths on the roads of the Gard rhodanien”

“In the Gard rhodanien, there have been several deaths on the road in recent months” deplores Captain Henninger. Like this summer, a fatal accident in the Cèze Valley due to "excessive speed, with loss of control of the vehicle. The car hit a concrete culvert and caught fire. The two people in the vehicle died".

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