British children and father die in French holiday motorway crash
Mother and two-year-old in hospital after family car leaves the road and smashes into concrete wall
A BRITISH father and two of his young children died when their car crashed on a French motorway amid fears he may have fallen asleep at the wheel.
The mother and their youngest child were in hospital last night having survived the crash, which happened during a family holiday.
The dead man was named locally as John Crompton, 31, from Hartlepool, Co Durham, and it is understood his son Morgan, believed to be nine, and daughter Evielily, four, also died at the scene. Mr Crompton’s partner, Makayla Lund, and the couple’s third child, thought to be two, were critically injured and airlifted to a nearby hospital.
French investigators said it was possible the driver had fallen asleep behind the wheel or was distracted by something which caused him to veer off the road.
Relatives in the close-knit community in north Hartlepool were too devastated to talk yesterday but neighbours spoke of their shock at the tragedy. One neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said: “John was a big lad, he was only young. He’s very much like his mum. It’s absolutely awful. I’m just in shock.”
Another said: “All I heard was that they have lost a son and a daughter. I know John worked in Italy so he might have been on his way there.” A further added: “I knew that they were going away on holiday. It’s just such a shock to be honest.”
The accident happened around 7.15am local time yesterday as the family’s Nissan car was travelling south on the A39 motorway between Dijon and Bourg-en-Bresse in the east of France. The car is believed to have gone over a railing, before smashing against a concrete wall and landing in a crumpled heap back on the road.
The three children were thrown from the car whose roof was torn off by the impact. The vehicle was left on its side in the middle of the road, with the family’s belongings strewn across the motorway.
Police said it was not clear what caused the vehicle to veer off the road but no other vehicle was involved.
“The crash may have been due to the driver falling asleep at the wheel or perhaps the driver was distracted by something and veered to the right,” said senior regional official Georges Bos at the crash site.
Gendarme Captain Gilles Quintaine told The Daily Telegraph that an inquiry had been launched to determine the cause of the accident. “We don’t know how long the father had been driving for, whether he had been at the wheel all night or whether he had just got on the road this morning,” he said.
“We are hoping that family members will be able to help us with that.”
In an interview with the France 3 TV channel, a member of the emergency services said the two children were dead when they arrived and the father was trapped. Patrick Landry, who supervised the rescue operation, told the French station: “After the father was extricated from the vehicle he went into cardiac arrest and was declared dead minutes later by a doctor.”
Two air ambulances were called to take the injured mother and surviving son to hospital and police closed off the motorway for several hours.
The scene was so devastating that a psychologist was brought in to counsel the two dozen rescue workers who were called to the crash site.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are providing assistance following a road traffic accident in France, in which three British nationals have sadly died and two others have been hospitalised. We are working closely with local authorities and supporting the families at this difficult time.”