Traffic stops for safety drill in Motril tunnel

AN EMERGENCY drill was carried out at the Fuentecilla tunnel on the A7 motorway near Motril on Monday (April 22) to confirm the structure’s safety.

Occasional drills are required by law for motorway tunnels to improve coordination and cooperation between tunnel workers and emergency services.

In this case, the hypothetical emergency was a car crash with heavy smoke and two passengers inside the vehicle, and traffic was cut off from 8am to almost 1pm.

The tunnel has been open for just over a year, and is monitored 24 hours a day from a nearby control centre. Safety measures include video surveillance with automatic incident detection, evacuation galleries, automatic ventilation, fire extinguishers and hoses, megaphones and SOS points.