Puisseguin coach accident: more than five years later, the investigation relaunched

More than five years after the tragedy, the hope of "explanations" for the relatives of the victims: the Libourne public prosecutor's office has relaunched the investigation into the Puisseguin disaster in 2015, one of the deadliest coach accidents with 43 dead, claiming for the first time indictments.

On October 23, 2015, the collision between a truck and a coach left 43 dead in Puisseguin, south of Bordeaux, the deadliest road accident in France since that of Beaune, in Côte-d'Or, in 1982 (53 dead, mostly children).

Towards the indictment of four companies? 

For a year, the case took the path of a dismissal while no indictment had been pronounced in five years and that the investigating judge had in February 2020 informed the civil parties that he was putting end of investigations.

It was then up to the Libourne prosecutor Olivier Kern to take a position on the follow-up to be given to a case which he himself qualifies as "extraordinary".

What he did on January 6, at the end of "an in-depth analysis of the file" by making additional requisitions for the purposes of indictment, he announced.

The prosecutor formally asks the investigating judge to hear and indict four companies, as well as individuals for unintentional "homicides" and "injuries", he added without giving further details.

The prosecution emphasizes that the instruction highlighted "failures in the monitoring of the truck", which concern in particular "the revision and modifications" of the semi-trailer.

"After five years of investigation, we finally have a request for the indictment of people affected by the accident," said Antoine Chambolle, lawyer for more than 130 relatives of victims and three of the eight survivors of the disaster. .

"The investigation is not finished, a new phase will begin and will perhaps make it possible to obtain explanations. New investigations will be carried out", before a possible decision of the judge to pronounce or not these indictments, a he added.

"Relaunch the debate"

On this small road in Gironde, the semi-trailer arriving at 75 km / h had shifted to the left on leaving the village of Puisseguin, had jacked up before hitting a bus of retirees on an excursion, coming in the direction reverse.

The passengers had found themselves trapped in the bus quickly engulfed in flames and toxic fumes, and were burnt alive or asphyxiated.

In 2017, the administrative investigation of the transport accident investigation office (BEA-TT) attributed the "direct cause" of the accident to "loss of control" in the bend, of the driver of the truck, who died in the accident.

The BEA recommended strengthening the standards in coaches on the resistance of materials to fire, and introducing them on the toxicity of combustion gases, stressing that these factors could have increased the balance sheet.

The colossal judicial investigation led by the sole investigating judge of Libourne, however, retained that "the equipment of the coach (built by Mercedes) complied with the regulations in force", according to the prosecution.

The presence of an additional diesel tank installed on the back of the cab of the tractor unit and not in accordance with the regulations, was also at the heart of the legal investigations.

For the parquet floor, "shortcomings", on the one hand in the installation of this tank, and on the other hand, in the braking system of the trailer, are "so many elements which from the point of view of causality indirect, contributed "to the drama.  

"If the characterization of the offense is likely to be complex, the decision of the prosecution at least has the merit of reviving the debate and holding the main protagonists to account," said Antoine Chambolle.