ADاشتہار / AdvertisementGoogle Ad
France School Bus Crash Kills 2, Injures 16 Near LyonWorld
Two people, including a seven-year-old girl, were killed and 16 injured when a bus carrying schoolchildren veered off the road near Lent in eastern France on Friday morning.
Share:
The accident happened at about 7:30am near the small town of Lent, in the Ain department north-east of Lyon, as the bus travelled on the D22 road between Lyon and Bourg-en-Bresse. The vehicle left the road and ended up in a ditch, striking a tree, according to French authorities.
The Ain prefecture said one minor and one young adult were killed, while 16 people were injured, including three seriously. The victims were later identified as a seven-year-old girl and an 18-year-old man. Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot, who visited the scene, said the bus was operated by the regional authority and was carrying about 15 students along with other passengers.
ADاشتہار / AdvertisementGoogle Ad
Prosecutors said the bus was carrying 43 passengers in total, including pupils heading to middle and high schools in the area. The service was the A32 regional route, run by Philibert Transports on behalf of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region. News broadcaster BFM TV reported that the passengers included children travelling to schools across the area.
Tabarot described the crash as a tragic accident and expressed his condolences to the victims’ families. President Emmanuel Macron also expressed condolences, and Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Education Minister Edouard Geffray both responded publicly to the news.
The cause of the accident has not yet been determined. Lent mayor Yves Cristin told broadcaster Franceinfo that the road was a little wet and there was no fog, adding that he did not understand why the bus had veered off the road. The Ain prefect, Louis-Xavier Thirode, told BFM that preliminary blood tests carried out on the bus driver found no traces of alcohol or drugs.
The driver was taken to hospital and had not yet been questioned, prosecutors said. An investigation has been opened by prosecutors in Bourg-en-Bresse into possible road homicide and aggravated road injuries, and investigators will examine the vehicle, the road and the circumstances of the journey.
Emergency services rushed to the rural scene, where rescue workers treated the injured and took them to hospitals in the region. The crash happened in a quiet farming area, and local residents described their shock at the scale of the tragedy on an ordinary school morning.
France has seen a series of serious road accidents involving school transport in recent years, and each one renews debate about the safety of buses carrying children on rural routes. For the families in Lent and the surrounding villages, however, the focus now is on the victims and the injured, and on the investigation that must establish why a routine journey ended in disaster.
Related Coverage
