An accident occurred this Saturday morning in Oise, around 6:15 a.m. on the A1 motorway in the Lille-Paris direction, on the Roberval viaduct near Pontpoint. A broken down car, parked on the emergency lane, was hit by a heavy goods vehicle traveling in the right lane. The driver of the immobilized vehicle had left it and was at the call point to report when the collision occurred.
“A true miracle,” testifies many motorists on social networks. “The car is nothing more than a cube,” says one of them on Facebook. The shock was very violent. The driver managed to escape from his cabin before the truck caught fire and was transported to the nearest hospital for examinations. According to the gendarmerie, “all screenings were negative. He is more shocked than hurt.” His semi-trailer, lying on its side, completely burst into flames, possibly due to an oil leak.
Emergency services arrived quickly on site and access to the motorway, on this portion, was prohibited from 6:25 a.m. Firefighters put out the fire to prevent it from spreading. “The road is filled with moss. There are impressive lines of vehicles behind. Good luck to everyone there,” described an Internet user.
The wreck of the truck was removed around 10:30 a.m. While the lifting was in progress, a traffic jam of 1.8 km, at its peak, was recorded. A diversion has been put in place. Thus, all traffic was diverted onto secondary roads and particularly in the town of Verberie which experienced heavy traffic. The mayor, Michel Arnoult, who is fighting against excessive truck traffic in his village, warned his residents of the situation on Facebook.
According to the departmental road safety squadron, the hydrocarbon leak was not due to what the truck was transporting, but came from the tank. “In any case, in view of the accident, there is relatively little damage and no environmental risk to report,” we specify. SANEF, which was responsible for cleaning this portion of the road, was to restore traffic in the afternoon.
