"ESPOIR: AnalysE des Secours Pompiers en sécurIté Routière" - STATE 

Duration: 30 months (2022 - 2025)

Funding (Ministry of the Interior and Overseas France): €216,000

Project sponsor: Université Gustave Eiffel

Co-sponsors: AMU-Mesopolhis and ENSOSP

Project team

Laurent CARNISResearch Director, Université Gustave Eiffel (DEST) - Project Manager

Cédric GARCIAResearch Engineer, Gustave Eiffel University

Océane PERONASenior Lecturer in Sociology, Aix-Marseille University (Mesopolhis)

Tommaso GIURIATISociologist at the Mesopolhis laboratory of the Mediterranean Centre for Sociology, Political Science and History in Aix-en-Provence.

Anne KLETZLENLaw and sociology researcher, associated with the Mesopolhis laboratory at the Mediterranean Centre for Sociology, Political Science and History in Aix-en-Provence.

Audrey MOREL SENATOREHead of Department, ENSOSP 

Djamila GROSAdministrative Assistant, ENSOSP

Wilfried STEFICCommander, ENSOSP

This project has 3 main focuses:

1) Characterise and understand the organisation of first aid to improve road safety;

2) Be aware of road safety issues at the scene of the operation;

3) Knowledge of the personal assistance profession: representation, issues and barriers.

These three areas of research are detailed below.

Characterise and understand the organisation of first aid to improve road safety

  • Rapid intervention by the fire service at the scene of an accident is crucial to saving lives and reducing the consequences of the accident. The consequences of an accident for the victim depend, among other things, on the speed of the response and the conditions in which the victim is secured. Rapid transfer of the casualty to the emergency services reduces the likelihood of death in the event of the casualty surviving the accident (known as the Golden Hour). As a result, the quality of the fire brigade's response is crucial in preventing a fatality during the evacuation of the victim or a worsening of the consequences of the injuries. These interventions are a lever for improving road safety.

    The conditions under which these services are provided depend in particular on the human and technical resources available to carry them out, but also on the different environments in which they operate (more or less urbanised areas), with organisational constraints (size of workforce, diversity of missions, etc.) and users' vehicles now equipped with e-call (since April 2018 for new vehicles).

    However, little is known about the activities of the fire brigade. This line of research will aim to characterise and document the road safety work carried out by the fire brigade, whose remit extends beyond road rescue.

    The aim will therefore be to produce new knowledge about the conditions under which firefighters operate and to identify the human and technical resources deployed by the SISs. It will also involve determining their territorial distribution and comparing the resources and types of rescue centre with the territorial conditions for intervention. A second objective will be to characterise the conditions under which response operations are carried out, particularly in terms of response times and types, as well as their place among other rescue missions. Finally, a third objective will be to compare the accident rate recorded at departmental level with the location of SIS resources.

Be aware of road safety issues at the scene of an incident

  • Road safety data is important for characterising the issues, steering policies and prioritising interventions. Access to different sources of information and data is therefore crucial.

    When the fire brigade arrives at the scene of an accident, it collects a range of useful information that should be exploited. The types of injury in these accidents, some of which are not included in the ONISR database, can be analysed using the emergency services' emergency response reports. At the dawn of a technological transformation within the SIS, there are new possibilities for collecting data on people injured in road accidents. This action will analyse a representative sample of this database. Access to this database should make it possible to obtain additional information on road accidents, their level and characteristics (type of network, place and time of accident).

    In addition, SIS activities include a preventive and public information component, which needs to be documented and better defined. It would also be useful to have information on the activities carried out and feedback on the preventive measures taken. How are these actions designed? Is there any feedback? How are they taken into account? Analysis of the database should also help to better characterise and contextualise fire-fighting operations.

Knowledge of the life-saving professions: representation, issues and barriers

  • As first responders in roadside rescue, firefighters are also subject to psychological risks associated with their work, which can lead to post-traumatic stress. Some firefighters are involved in accidents at work, making this a high-risk occupation for saving lives and rescuing victims.

    The aim of this line of research is to gain a better understanding of how the job is carried out in terms of
    The aim of this line of research, which will involve interviews in the field and the drafting of a questionnaire, is also to document firefighters' perceptions of their missions, as well as their training requirements. The aim of this line of research, through interviews conducted in the field and the drafting of a questionnaire, should also make it possible to document firefighters' perceptions of their missions, as well as organisational and missional barriers, and to identify the challenges concerning intervention conditions, particularly with the technological evolution of vehicles. The project will also aim to study and document preventive actions. The study of organisational constraints will involve identifying the issues relating to the means of action and the priority given to road safety missions, as well as studying relations with local decision-makers, such as prefects (through the SDACR, departmental risk analysis and coverage plans) and the relays within the prefectures.

    The three areas of research in this project should enable us to better document and characterise the action of fire-fighters in road safety.