“Overall, people outside have a motive”

This Friday April 9 marks the official start of spring break. The police organized numerous checks on compliance with the measures in force. Example at the Virsac toll

PStage of Virsac (Haute Gironde), at the exit of the A10, this Friday April 9, at 6:45 pm Official start of the spring holidays. It is not the usual endless flow that befits the days of great departure. Ten gendarmes from the motorway platoon of Saint-Aubin-de-Blaye and Saint-André-de-Cubzac, Bordeaux and Libourne check the reasons for motorists’ movements.

“During the first confinement, many Parisians came to confine themselves on the Gironde coast,” explains Captain Lionel Billette, second in command of the departmental road safety squadron (EDSR). However, vacations are not a reason for travel. The price in the event of a breach remains unchanged: 135 euros per person. Adults and children.

Discernment is the golden rule. “It’s not about crushing them”

“In this niche, and in this sector on the outskirts of the Bordeaux agglomeration, there are a lot of people who circulate for professional reasons”, reveals Captain Billette. The gendarmes organize these “iron curtain checks” every evening. With discernment as the golden rule. “It’s not about crushing them. Overall, the people outside have a motive. “

“The gendarmes track down all the caricatured situations which are socially unacceptable, in particular for those who respect the rule”, summarizes Colonel Olivia Poupot, commander of the departmental gendarmerie group. “It is important that the police go after those who openly laugh at the restrictions and do anything. “

Collective responsibility

In a few hours, the gendarmes come across the personal lives of dozens of people. An apprentice priest returning from La Rochelle after a mass he celebrated. A student returning home to study. A Charentaise-Maritime who has a medical appointment at 9 am the next day and preferred to take a hotel room in Bordeaux. A student peacekeeper stationed at CRS 42 in Saint-Herblain, Loire-Atlantique, who returns home. Soldiers from the same barracks traveling together. Craftsmen returning from a day’s work. A father who left for the Dordogne with his partner to buy, for his son, a quad whose announcement not to be missed had just appeared.

Arrive the cohort of fathers and mothers in shared custody, gone to pick up their children for the week or moving around to entrust them to the grandparents. From Rennes to Montauban with a stopover in Bordeaux. From Angoulême to Bordeaux. “Pay attention to yourselves, have a good trip,” say the gendarmes at the end of each check.

Some motorists do not have a certificate, no supporting documents, no license or documents in order, have had a drink or smoked a joint before taking the road. “We deploy the net and we fish everything inside,” explains Colonel Poupot. “We also rely on collective responsibility and it works,” concludes the chief of staff of the prefect of Gironde, Delphine Balsa.

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