Flashing blue lights, large luminous arrows signalling the intervention of vans… “We wonder how” not to see them and yet, 27 motorway patrol cars have already been hit in 2024. To combat this plague, Vinci is betting on AI and a shrill ringtone.
At the wheel of his van, equipped with a device combining artificial intelligence (AI) and an audible alarm, Johan Moreau, a 39-year-old police officer, begins his patrol along the A11 highway linking Paris to Brittany.
In his case, “the alarm has never been triggered,” beyond the usual checks before each patrol. “And that’s even better, because if that happens, something is wrong,” says the patrolman, dressed all in yellow.
In the vehicle, the device, called PatrolCare, materializes by a red button, a small camera in the rear and a red alarm.
Developed by a subsidiary of Vinci, it uses AI-based software that analyses live images filmed by a camera located at the back of the van, at a distance of between 200 and 250 metres, and a buzzer that is activated when a vehicle’s dangerous trajectory is detected.
By the end of the year, 200 vans are to be equipped. Another operator in northern and eastern France, Sanef, told AFP that it was “interested” in the system.
It is a welcome “complement” and “even with the windows closed and the radio on, you will hear it!” assures Johan Moreau, a patrolman for two years and a volunteer firefighter for 20 years.
144 incidents in 2023
“This device alerts patrol officers and users who may be afraid to change their route,” explains Sandra Lafay, head of the Vinci district who leads the teams working on the A10 and A11 from the centre of Ponthévrard (Yvelines).
On the weekend of 13 and 14 July, these two routes leading to the exits are announced as “particularly congested” by Bison futé. Instead of the usual 2.5 million daily users across the Vinci Autoroutes network, 4 million are expected.
Back on the road, Johan Moreau comes across three patrol cars a few hundred metres away. Each one is positioned 150 metres away, with their signalling arrows lit while an officer is mowing the grass in the central reservation.
“If we keep our eyes open, we can see them,” says Johan Moreau as he walks past his companions.
However, in 2023, the French road companies’ association (ASFA) recorded 144 incidents involving officers involved: one man died and 22 were injured.
Last March, a patrol car was fatally run over while protecting the scene of an accident on the French Riviera, and another was injured.
Drowsiness and “distractors”
“I intervene on the road three to six times a day,” estimates Johan Moreau, “mainly for animals on the road, obstacles, bicycle belts and also for accidents…”
Tasks that may seem insignificant to some but which pose a great risk in the vicinity of vehicles travelling at 130 km/h.
Almost one in two accidents occurs during maintenance work, according to data from Sanef’s Motorway Behaviour Observatory in July. And more than a third during emergency interventions, to help motorists.
“How is this possible? It is often drowsiness, hypovigilance and often ‘distractors’,” that is, the use of phones, GPS and other screens that divert the driver’s attention, lists Johan Moreau.
According to Vinci, 65% of drivers make calls while driving, an even greater number use their smartphone or program their GPS, and two out of five are driving in a state of extreme fatigue.
However, the patrolman, a father of four children, does not consider his job to be “dangerous.”
It is a “risk linked to the user,” he downplays, but the heart of the profession “is kindness,” according to him.
In summer, “we see people (tourists) for whom it is not easy, because they are not used to taking the motorway and can quickly become stressed,” “we are there to protect them,” the patrolman stresses.
Source: BFM TV
