A dramatic accident. Sunday December 1, around 5 p.m., a Spanish coach which was carrying 47 people between Barcelona and Pas de Case, in Andorra, hit a cliff on a mountain road, near Porté-Puymorens, in the Pyrénées-Orientales . According to the latest provisional report, the accident caused two deaths, 10 serious injuries and 32 minor injuries.
“The bus hit the left side of the road hard and came to a stop. The shock was very violent,” detailed the sub-prefect of Pyrénées-Orientales, Didier Carponcin, to Agence France-Presse, specifying that the accident took place “at nightfall”. Speaking to the BFM TV channel, the mayor of Porté-Puymorens, Jean-Philippe Augé, also clarified that the accident occurred while the coach was returning to Barcelona.
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The authorities indicated that the passengers are mainly of Spanish and Colombian nationality and that a four-year-old child is in a state of relative emergency.
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“Zigzags on the road”
The accident took place on the RN 320, a mountainous road between the Pyrénées-Orientales, Ariège, Andorra and Spain, where the bus left its lane. In images sent by the authorities, he appears to have crossed the road and crashed into the cliff on the driver's side. One entire side of the vehicle was torn off by friction with the rock wall.
An investigation was opened to determine the causes of the accident. “Is it a human error, is it linked to technical or brake problems that the bus encountered? I cannot say at the moment,” said the sub-prefect, while the accident area is completely cordoned off for the purposes of the investigation. “Testimonies” report the “zigzags” that the bus was doing before being in an accident, he conceded. Speaking to “L’Indépendant”, a survivor explained that the bus had a “brake” problem. “I saw the driver trying to brake and shift gears, but we could see that there was a problem with the brakes,” he assures.
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The weather conditions were not unfavorable at the time of the accident, “there was no snow or ice”, assured AFP Jeanine Ribo, deputy mayor in the neighboring town of Porta. “It’s a very narrow place, where the cliff juts out onto the road,” she adds.
