Eli5: How does emergency response work in long underwater tunnels like the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel?
In: 3
Poorly, but not much changes.
It doesn’t matter if an accident happens on a highway above ground, or in a tunnel, the emergency services will need to drive to you anyway. It doesn’t matter that much in terms of reachability. Only helicopters and large vehicles are sometimes unable to assist, but they aren’t used that much anyway for traffic accidents.
The main issue is safety of first responders. Visibility is a weakened in tunnels, so the tunnel needs to be shut down entirely to ensure the safety of first responders. From then on, it’s just assessing the damage, driving injured out the other side, and eventually towing the involved vehicles.
*My info is from my own country (I’m in western Europe). I don’t know if it’s different in other places.
The responders typically drive to the scene. Similar to highways, the tunnels are closed for major events like vehicle fires or large crashes. Some tunnels like the english chunnel have a center service tunnel that provides escape for users stuck in the tunnel and emergency access for first responders.
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