France mourns deadly bus crash

MILLAS, France: French authorities were investigating Friday how a train was able to smash into a school bus, killing five children and ripping their vehicle in half in an accident that has devastated the local community.

Four teenagers died on Thursday in the collision at a level crossing in the village of Millas near the southern city of Perpignan, and local authorities said a fifth child died from their injuries Friday.

Fifteen other children, all aged between 11 and 17, were injured when the bus was torn in two and the train pulled off its rails in France’s worst accident involving a school bus for three decades.

The bus driver and three train passengers were also hurt.

“The families of those caught up in the accident are going through something absolutely terrible,” said Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who visited Millas on Thursday.

The accident site was sealed off as police examined whether a technical or human error was to blame.

State prosecutor Xavier Tarrabeaux said Friday that most witnesses interviewed by investigators said the barriers were closed at the time of crash, although some, including the bus driver, gave diverging accounts.

SNCF, the national rail operator, said the barriers had been ‘functioning normally’.

Most of the students were from the local Christian Bourquin junior high school, where pupils were in shock as they arrived on Friday.

“I went to sleep at two or three in the morning. I was watching the news, I wasn’t able to sleep,” said teenager Lorena Garcies, dressed in black.

Her cousin and another friend were on the bus, but escaped with broken bones.

“I’m trying to be strong for them,” she said.

The bus driver, a 48-year-old woman, was severely hurt and was not able to speak to investigators, although her toxicology test and that of the train driver came back negative, officials said.

She also insisted that the crossing barriers were open at the time of the collision, according to her employer.

“We saw each other last night in her hospital bed and she was perfectly lucid,” said a bus company official. “She told us she crossed (the train line) confidently and calmly, with the barriers open and crossing lights not flashing.”

As a debate broke out about whether enough has been done to secure some 15,000 similar level crossings in France, SNCF issued a statement declaring itself ‘shocked by the serious accusations’ made against it “without any evidence”. — AFP