A long and difficult investigation lies ahead after France’s deadliest road crash in more than 30 years.
At least 43 people were killed and four seriously hurt on Friday morning in a head-on collision between a truck and a bus carrying elderly day-trippers.
Both vehicles burst into flames after the crash near a forested bend on a two-lane road cut into a hillside near Puisseguin, some 60 km east of Bordeaux.
TV footage showed two blackened vehicles, with the bus facing the wood-transporter’s trailer, the truck’s cab skewed to one side, and scorched vegetation around the site, which was sealed off by police.
While early reports suggest the lorry may have jackknifed and left its side of the road, caution is being observed.
“Only by investigating the traffic conditions and markings left by both the bus and the HGV will we be able to find out more about the vehicles’ speed and the way in which the accident unfolded,” said investigating prosecutor Christophe Auger.
The bend wa
