A riot police officer was dragged for 40 meters at the Bandol tollbooth; a female driver was taken into custody.

At the Bandol tollbooth on the A50 motorway, a routine traffic stop descended into chaos. A riot police officer from the Provence highway patrol was injured after being struck by a car while responding to an accident: a driver had just hit a low wall, puncturing two tires, and her driving had been deemed erratic. The officers asked her to turn off the engine. Everything happened in a split second, at the worst possible moment: while an officer tried to retrieve the keys, the driver suddenly restarted the car while the officer's hand was still inside.

Control is short-lived, violence remains

The police officer was dragged for about forty meters before managing to free himself. Upon arrival, he suffered bruises, abrasions, and was described as "shocked" by a police source—a stark image of a profession where the asphalt offers no mercy. According to several media outlets, the driver refused to take a breathalyzer test. Arrested less than a kilometer away, with the assistance of other officers, she was taken into custody. The Var prefect, according to Var-Matin, called the injured riot police officer to express his "gratitude" and support, a symbolic gesture as traffic stops continue, subject to the same unpredictable nature.