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French villages seek a divided highway as trucks crowd RN 145

Local mayors and residents say cameras and overtaking restrictions have not resolved the dangers of a major freight route through Haute-Vienne.

Channel: TF1 INFO ·

FranceStory of November 12, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of TF1 INFO's most watched videos since yesterday, with 181,047 views.

TF1 INFO: The news division of TF1, a private French television channel owned by the Bouygues group. 1.8M subscribers and 2B views.

Comment sécuriser la route la plus dangereuse de France | TF1 INFO

Things we can learn from the video

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0:20Local mayors say continuous truck traffic puts people walking beside the RN 145 at risk.
1:04Maps identify the Haute-Vienne section that still lacks two lanes in each direction.
1:19Residents describe speeding traffic and trucks leaving the road near their homes.
2:16A driver's recording shows the difficulty of turning left toward home with trucks approaching behind.
2:33Campaigners propose widening the road into a divided highway with a central reservation.
3:04Road-safety spokesperson Christophe Ramond sets out the wider human and economic cost of crashes.

Walking beside passing trucks, two village mayors point out what residents along France's RN 145 face whenever they leave home: heavy traffic close to houses, difficult turns and little room for pedestrians.

France's TF1 INFO follows Pascal Fonteneau, mayor of Droux, and Pascal Combecau, mayor of Villefavard, along the road in Haute-Vienne, in southwest-central France. They visit the site of a recent fatal head-on collision involving a truck. Combecau says the road has been dangerous for years and traffic is increasing.

The report says crashes on a 27-kilometer stretch have killed 12 people and injured 52 over a decade. Three speed cameras have been installed and solid center lines extended to restrict overtaking, but residents argue that the road itself is no longer suited to the traffic it carries.

Maps show the wider Route Centre Europe Atlantique, an east-west road corridor, and the section near Bellac that still lacks two lanes in each direction. The contrast matters to campaigners: they want a divided highway with a central reservation, like the upgraded route in neighboring Creuse.

At roadside homes, the problem becomes personal. Residents describe speeding vehicles, trucks ending up in gardens and the difficulty of getting out safely. One driver films the maneuver required to turn left toward her home while trucks approach from behind.

Jean-Louis Thibaud and Gérard Rumeau, representatives of the association campaigning for continuity of the corridor, press the case for widening. Thibaud also argues that the route's freight traffic makes its safety a European concern, not simply a local one.

The video, titled "Comment sécuriser la route la plus dangereuse de France | TF1 INFO" ("How to make France's most dangerous road safer"), closes by broadening the question beyond this stretch. Road-safety association spokesperson Christophe Ramond says economists estimate the annual cost of road crashes to French society at between €50 billion and €100 billion.