43 lose lives in fiery bus-truck collision
Wine region crash worst French traffic disaster in 33 years.
In the worst traffic disaster in 33 years in France, a truck collided head-on with a bus carrying elderly people on a sightseeing excursion Friday morning, killing at least 43 people and injuring eight others, officials said. Residents of the small town where most of the victims lived mourned the loss of nearly an entire generation.
The crash took place about 7:30 a.m. near the town of Puisseguin, close to the city of Libourne and east of Bordeaux. According to the authorities, a truck used to transport wood swerved at a curve in a rural road and struck the bus, causing both vehicles to burst into flames.
The bus passengers, members of a senior citizens’ club in Petit-Palaisde-Cornemps, about 5 miles north of Puisseguin, were headed first to a tasting of the neighboring region’s famous cured hams at a shop 120 miles away. Sylvie Milhard, whose uncle died in the crash, said, “It’s a whole generation that is lost.”
Xavier Sublett, the mayor of Puisseguin, said the crash happened on a sharp bend in the road, several hundred feet from the town. “The bus was hit by a truck that was coming the opposite way and that missed a tight turn,” he said in a phone interview, adding that the road was “pretty and very picturesque” but not in poor condition.
At a news conference in Libourne on Friday evening, Christophe Auger, the public prosecutor there, said the exact death toll was not certain because it was still unclear whether everybody scheduled to go on the excursion attended.
The truck driver also was killed. The authorities announced that they had found the body of a 3-year-old boy — the driver’s son — in the truck’s cab. Of the eight people who were injured, two suffered head injuries and two others had burns, while four had lesser injuries.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls, speaking to reporters in Puisseguin, called the accident “horrifying” and added, “We have not seen such a catastrophe on our roads for over 30 years.”
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve also headed to the scene, as did Alain Juppe, a former prime minister who is the mayor of Bordeaux.
The bus was traveling to La Maison du Jambon de Bayonne in Arzacq-Arraziguet, a store and museum devoted to the region’s cured hams, according to Bertrand Ecomard, head of the museum.
Col. Ghislain Réty of the Gironde gendarmerie told reporters at the scene that 250 officers had been deployed and that it was too early to say what had caused the wreck.
He said the bus driver had acted “heroically” by helping several people get out of the bus.
He added that one of the biggest questions was why the bus had caught fire so quickly.