Charles Luylier (special correspondent to Dions in Gard) / Photo credits: CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP 8:15 a.m., March 12, 2024
The five people who died in the floods which hit the Gard died after trying to cross submersible bridges.
They can become real mortal dangers during severe weather.
The death toll from bad weather in the south-east of France rose to five deaths with the discovery of the body of an octogenarian on Monday in the Hérault river, near his flooded vehicle.
What these victims have in common is that they attempted to cross a submersible bridge by car.
These bridges can be potentially dangerous.
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A lack of signage?
The Gard department has around sixty submersible bridges.
These structures, when lowered, are designed to let water flow more easily in the event of flooding.
However, the bridge sometimes does not have the time necessary to do its work: "The water level reaches the level of the bridge then, sometimes in a few minutes, can submerge it or even make it disappear completely. These works make the subject to signaling informing motorists that the lane is blocked", explains Lieutenant Colonel Éric Agrinier.
Except that these barriers, Saturday evening in Dions, were not there or not early enough.
This is what Tristan and Christiane confirm.
They crossed the bridge two hours before the fatal crossing for a father and his two children: "The Gardon had already overflowed its bed for a while and there were no barriers. The water was already ten centimeters deep to get over it,” explains Tristan.
“We passed by and it wasn’t blocked,” adds Christiane.
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The barriers near these submersible bridges do not work miracles because they are easily bypassed by motorists.