Five years after the tragic collapse of the Mirepoix-sur-Tarn bridge (Haute-Garonne), which cost the lives of two people, the Toulouse criminal court opens the trial for manslaughter.
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The criminal court of Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) opened on Tuesday November 26, 2024 the trial for manslaughter concerning the collapse of the Mirepoix-sur-Tarn bridge, which occurred five years ago. On November 18, 2019, this tragedy cost the lives of two people: the driver of a truck weighing more than 50 tons and a 15-year-old girl.
On November 18, 2019, the Mirepoix-sur-Tarn bridge (Haute-Garonne) collapsed, causing the death of two people: a 15-year-old girl and the driver of a truck.
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© NATHALIE SAINT-AFFRE / MAXPPP
On the day of the accident, a heavy goods vehicle well in excess of the maximum authorized load of 19 tonnes entered the bridge spanning the Tarn. This overload caused the structure to collapse, taking the truck and a car with it.
The mother of the deceased teenager, herself a survivor of the accident, expressed her incomprehension in court: “How in this day and age can you die crossing a bridge to go to school?“She expects the trial to determine responsibility for this tragedy.
Listen to the explanations from the France 3 Occitanie team, Aude Chéron and Elsa Leroy:
duration of video: 00h00mn57s
Five years after the tragic collapse of the Mirepoix-sur-Tarn bridge (Haute-Garonne), which cost the lives of two people, the Toulouse criminal court opens the trial for manslaughter.
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©Elsa Leroy – FTV
The Puits Julien drilling company, run by the deceased driver and located near the bridge, is being prosecuted in this case. A judicial investigation had been opened for homicide and involuntary injuries, as well as for aggravated offenses linked to non-compliance with safety rules.
To read: Collapse of the Mirepoix bridge. “It is a symbolic trial so that guilt is recognized, affirmed and pronounced”
According to the expert commissioned by the courts, the bridge was “notabsolutely not capable of supporting a truck with a load of 58 tonnes“However, the structure had been inspected two years before the accident and had been the subject of a control visit in December 2018. The hypothesis of a breach of monitoring procedures was ruled out.
At the initiative of the local children, nearly 500 people took part in a silent march to pay tribute to Lisa and Damien on November 30, 2019.
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© MaxPPP/La Dépêche du Midi/X.De Fenoyl
This tragedy is part of a broader context of concerns about the state of bridges in France. A senatorial report from June 2019 highlighted the worrying state of at least 25,000 road bridges in the country, shortly before the Mirepoix-sur-Tarn accident.The trial should help clarify the circumstances of this accident and determine responsibilities in this tragedy which marked the region.
