Heavy freezing rain, which led to the closure of several motorways in Burgundy on Saturday evening, appears to be the cause of a pileup of three vehicles on the A6, in the Paris-Lyon direction, near Mercueil ( Gold Coast). The driver of one of the vehicles, a 20-year-old young man, died, while four other people were slightly injured, including a 6-year-old child, firefighters said.
According to a report at 9:30 p.m., while the freezing rains were about to end according to the weather services, sixteen road accidents were recorded in Côte d'Or, causing sixty victims including, in addition to the young man who died, two seriously injured.
This Sunday, January 5, meteorologists put an end to vigilance by explaining that “a disturbance associated with a mild air mass” was “sweeping the entire country, in a southwest/northwest direction.” East. This mild air puts an end to the snow and freezing rain that required monitoring.”
Météo-France had forecast snowfall “generally quite brief”, but which could be “more persistent in the border departments of the Grand Est, which could add up to five centimeters to the ground”.
Restrictions de circulation
In several regions, the authorities had limited the speeds authorized on the roads. In Île-de-France, the speed was lowered by 20 km/h from 5 p.m. to midnight, on the entire network, except the ring road. The Police Headquarters recommended favoring public transport, equipping your car with snow tires and providing “minimum equipment (warm clothing, food, water)”.
In Hauts-de-France, between Saturday 7 p.m. and Sunday 6 a.m., vehicles weighing less than 3.5 tonnes had to limit their speed to 110 km/h on sections of motorway normally limited to 130 km/h and 90 km/h on sections of motorways and national roads normally limited to 110 km/h.
