“It’s an absolute tragedy”: the bus tips into a ravine in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, a 16-year-old girl dies in the accident

What happened on departmental 2 between Monein and Pardies (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) this Thursday, December 26? This is the question that will occupy the minds of the Orthez research brigade and the Departmental Road Safety Squadron following the accident that occurred at midday and which cost the life of a 16-year-old girl. years old who was on a bus according to La République des Pyrénées.

No trace of collision

Originally from Monein, the young girl was present on this bus from the Nouvelle Aquitaine region which traveled between her town of origin and Pau. Three other people were in the vehicle, including the driver. According to the first elements of our colleagues, the coach would have “bitten” – for a reason still undetermined – on the shoulder in a straight line before lying in the ditch. According to France 3, a driving school vehicle arrived first at the scene of the accident and tried to rescue the bus passengers.

Significant emergency resources were quickly mobilized to try to save the young girl, trapped under the bus. Unfortunately she did not survive and was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Two other minor injuries were reported and were evacuated to Oloron hospital, around twenty kilometers from the scene of the accident.

Police custody lifted

The public prosecutor indicated that the driver of the bus, aged 55, shocked but unharmed, had been taken into police custody to try to determine the circumstances of the tragedy. But this was lifted a few hours later due to medical incompatibility. Toxicological analyzes were carried out. The Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, in a press release, expressed its “deep sadness”, after having learned of “the death of a teenage girl in a tragic road accident which occurred today in Monein” while the prefect of the Pyrenees- Atlantiques, Jean-Marie Girier, went to the site.

“All devastated”

The young girl came from a family of winegrowers, particularly renowned in the region. To La République des Pyrénées, the mayor of the town expressed his sadness. “There are no words. It's an absolute tragedy. She's a young girl I knew, I'm thinking of her parents and her little brother. We are all devastated.”