Opening of the trial into the collapse of a bridge in Haute-Garonne

An expected trial. On November 18, 2019, a truck over 50 tonnes had taken the bridge spanning the Tarn river designed to support a maximum load of 19 tonnes.

Two people died in the accident: the truck driver and one 15 year old girl who was in a car that fell into the river when it collapsed.

How in this day and age can you die crossing a bridge to go to school?” the mother of the deceased teenager told the court.

“I expect a lot from this trial, that justice will define the responsibility(s)”she added. On the day of the tragedy, she and her daughter were occupying the vehicle which had fallen into the Tarn, but she was able to be rescued.

The bridge was “absolutely not capable of supporting a truck with a load of 58 tonnes”

The deceased driver of the truck was leading the drilling company Puits Juliena company located a few hundred meters from the bridge, which is being prosecuted in this case.

A judicial investigation had been opened for homicide and involuntary injuries, as well as for “offenses aggravated by the manifestly deliberate violation of a particular obligation of safety or prudence imposed by law or regulation”.

The work, a metal structure dating from 1931, had been inspected two years previously and then had been the subject of a control visit in December 2018less than a year before the accident.

The hypothesis of a breach of monitoring procedures had been dismissed the same day of the accident by the Departmental Council. This was confirmed this Tuesday at the hearing by the expert responsible for rendering his conclusions.

The bridge was “absolutely not capable of supporting a truck with a load of 58 tonnes”declared the expert before the criminal court.

Following the collapse of the Genoa viaduct (Italy) in August 2018, a senatorial report pointed out in June 2019 the worrying state of “at least 25,000 road bridges” in Francejust before the accident at Mirepoix-sur-Tarn.

>> READ ALSO: The public rapporteur recommends the cancellation of the environmental authorization for the A69