Autoroute 20 Accident

[Joseph]

At8:00 pm on 31 July 1982, two coaches left Crpy-en-Valois, a town located approximately 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Paris.[3] They were carrying children and their teachers heading to a summer camp in Aussois in Savoie, in the French Alps. In the middle of the night, the two coaches were on the A6, heading towards Lyon.[4] When they passed Beaune, it was raining[5] and traffic was heavy on a day that is known as samedi noir ("black Saturday") in France, as many people leave for their summer holidays on this day.

At around 1:45 am, the general speed of traffic dropped due to the motorway becoming narrower, reducing from three lanes to two. Two cars, which were overtaking the two coaches at the point where the road narrowed, cut across behind one of the coaches and in front of the other. At the same time, the leading coach braked suddenly due to a slow-moving vehicle ahead. The second coach hit the back of the second car, causing a pile-up. The fuel tank of one of the cars was ripped open and emptied onto the road, and the petrol ignited. Six vehicles caught fire.

The first coach was evacuated by the drivers and teachers. In the second coach, a side exit was blocked by a crashed car. Nevertheless, two teachers managed to let around 15 children out through the back of the vehicle, but 44 remained trapped inside along with two drivers and two teachers. In the two cars that were travelling between the coaches, a total of five people, including two children, were killed (there were no survivors in these two cars).

Families were informed of the accident at 6 am. The names of the children who had died were announced by the mayor of Crpy-en-Valois at around 11 am, in alphabetical order. Few of the bodies were identifiable.

The funerals took place in Crpy-en-Valois on 3 August 1982. French President Franois Mitterrand attended. The bodies that could not be identified were buried together under a large headstone in the cemetery in Crpy-en-Valois.[6]

The maximum speed limit for coaches was reduced, while the speed limit for all vehicles in rainy conditions was reduced to 110 km/h (68 mph) on motorways and 80 km/h (50 mph) on other roads.[2][8] Transporting groups of children is now forbidden during the busy weekends of late July and early August. All heavy vehicles (such as HGVs and coaches) must now be equipped with a mechanical speed-limitation device, and it is strictly forbidden for the user to tamper with or modify this device in any way.[9]

A memorial was erected in 1985 at a road-side rest area near Curney, in the commune of Merceuil, very close to the crash site.[2] The child victims of the accident are buried in the cemetery in Crpy-en-Valois. The plaques feature their names, and some families lost several children.

Cohen was doing her makeup in the vanity mirror on the passenger side when the slab hit the windshield, Cholewa said. The rearview mirror and an accident-detection camera system attached to the front were knocked off and hit Cohen in the head, he said.

The technician at the dealership who replaced the windshield on Friday told him if it had been another make of car, it would have been fatal, Cholewa said. They were saved by the thickness and quality of the glass, he said.

The main indicators of injury accidents recorded by the police forces (BAAC file, data for year N in its final version in May of year N+1, quasi-final version in January of year N+1) are certified by the Public Statistics Authority.

The upturn in travel in 2021 had been tempered by a period of confinement in April, curfews throughout the first half of the year, and several periods when teleworking was strongly recommended. As a result, road accidents in the first half of 2021 were often lower than those observed in 2019, taken as the benchmark year before the pandemic. This benchmark will be used to monitor the accident rate over the decade 2020-2030.

Accidents are multi-factorial: in France, the 2015 FLAM study on the factors leading to fatal accidents identified human factors as contributing to 92% of fatal accidents, infrastructure-related factors to 30%, vehicle-related factors to 20% and traffic conditions to 18%.

Excessive or inappropriate speed and alcohol remain the top two factors cited (by 28% and 23% of those presumed responsible respectively). Illegal drugs and inattention were cited by 13% of those deemed to be at fault, discomfort by 10% of those deemed to be at fault, and failure to give way by 9% of those presumed responsible. Overall, failure to comply with traffic rules other than speeding (refusing right of way, dangerous overtaking, wrong way, changing lanes, failure to respect safe distances) was cited by 22% of those presumed responsible in accidents that had already occurred.

Around 16,000 people were seriously injured in 2022 according to the ONISR-Universit Gustave Eiffel (Rhne Register) estimation method. The trend for 2019-2022 is a decrease of -1.8%. Ages at higher risk are not the same depending on whether we look at people who die on the road or those who are seriously injured.

As the elderly are particularly vulnerable physiologically, they will have difficulty surviving serious injuries. On the other hand, as teenagers now die far less in road accidents, they are the 2nd age group most at risk of serious injury.

Source: ONISR final data up to 2022.

Data relating to injury accidents recorded by the police in mainland France, and estimates based on ONISR-UGE modelling (Rhne Register).

Insee - Estimated population at 1 January, ONISR processing

In 2019, the ratio of serious injuries to population was estimated at 250 serious injuries per million inhabitants. In 2020, it falls to an estimated 204 serious injuries per million inhabitants. In 2022, the indicator rises again to an estimated 243 serious injuries per million inhabitants.

Whatever the mode of travel, the proportion of male fatalities is much higher than the proportion of female fatalities; but it varies greatly depending on the mode of travel. Men account for 62% of pedestrian fatalities, 80% of those killed on public transport, 87% of those killed on bicycles, 94% of those killed on motorised two-wheelers, 73% of those killed in passenger vehicles, and 94% of those killed in utility vehicles or HGVs.

Since the pandemic, the proportion of vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists, users of personal mobility devices, powered two-wheeler users) among those killed or seriously injured has increased.

The proportion of powered two-wheeler users remains stable: they represent 22% of those killed, 33% of those seriously injured and 39% of those injured who will still have after-effects one year after the accident, for less than 2% of motorised traffic.

A partial increase of speed limits on roads outside built-upareasd to 90 km/h

The number of fatalities on the road network outside built-up areas (excluding motorways) in the 45 counties where the county council has opted to raise the speed limit to 90 km/h on all or part of the network is 1% higher than in 2019. Conversely, the number of fatalities on similar network on the remaining counties is 2% lower.

Deaths on powered two-wheelers increased in 2022, with 99 road users killed, i.e. just over a third of all road deaths in the French overseas territories. Failure to wear a helmet accounts for one in five powered two-wheeler fatalities.

Deaths in passenger cars account for more than a third of road deaths in the French overseas territories, with 101 deaths. Seatbelts are a major issue in the overseas territories, where three out of five people killed in cars, vans or HGVs were not wearing a seatbelt.

In order to comply with European statistical standards, the ONISR is publishing a new series of data on serious injuries for mainland France. These values are determined by a new method established jointly by the Gustave Eiffel University (UGE) and the ONISR. This method is based in particular on recent data on injuries recorded by the police, but aims to estimate the actual number of people injured in road accidents who are treated by hospital services.

A news release by the Sret du Qubec (SQ) says officers attended the scene of the accident shortly before noon in the municipality of Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, approximately 110 kilometres east of Ottawa, for a collision involving two vehicles.

(TOWN OF FENTON, NY) Due to a tractor trailer accident, the Broome County Office of Emergency Services has issued a mandatory evacuation for all residents within one-quarter mile of Interstate 88 at exit 2. The incident happened around 1AM. The tractor trailer was carrying hazardous materials.

Two children under the age of 12 were among five people killed when a semi-truck loaded with a toxic substance overturned in their rural Illinois community. The crash forced hundreds of nearby residents to evacuate their homes over the weekend, officials said.

The deadly highway wreck happened Friday night near the village of Teutopolis, authorities said. The semitruck was carrying several thousand gallons of anhydrous ammonia and caused a \"large plume cloud\" of the noxious gas to rise over the area, according to authorities.

Evacuated residents were allowed to return to their homes Saturday evening after the crash was cleared from U.S. Highway 40 and testing \"indicated the danger from the anhydrous ammonia has dissipated,\" Teutopolis Assistant Fire Chief Joe Holomy said in a statement.

\"We offer our deepest sympathies to all those affected by the accident and chemical spill. First responders and emergency managers train for this and many other kinds of emergencies with the goal of minimizing impact to people and property,\" Clayton Kuetemeyer, deputy director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland, said in a statement.

The incident unfolded around 8:40 p.m. local time when the semi-truck rolled over on the highway and spilled anhydrous ammonia on the roadway, causing \"terribly dangerous air conditions in the northeast area,\" Effingham County Sheriff Paul Kuhns told reporters during a Saturday press briefing.

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