Yesterday morning, motorists driving up to Chamonix saw ATMB employees at work in the Chavants tunnel. The work came at the end of a security exercise which was conducted last night by about thirty people from the ATMB motorway company, the company in charge of the "Route Blanche" since 2010. For this Monday night exercise, representatives from the police, firefighters and the prefecture were present, and the ATMB then closed the tunnel to traffic at 22:00hrs. The scenario involved a vehicle stuck in the middle of the tunnel, giving off thick smoke. Six members of the ATMB entered the tunnel using five vehicles, not knowing what they would find there. The goal: to observe their reactions and then to learn from any mistakes. One of the points raised by observers was that help arrived fifteen seconds after the alarm was raised, "too long" for the firefighters present, and a fault which is already being addressed by the ATMB.
