Pyrénées-Orientales: what we know about the terrible bus accident which left at least two dead

A bus cut in two and victims trapped against the rock. Rescuers were still at work on Sunday evening on the road to Porté-Puymorens, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, where an accident took place in the afternoon causing at least two deaths and seven serious injuries, according to a report provisional communicated by Didier Carponcin, sub-prefect of Pyrénées-Orientales Sunday evening during a press point. A third death, announced earlier by state services, was ultimately not confirmed.

It was around 5 p.m. when the Spanish vehicle traveling on the RN 320 towards this ski resort located two hours drive from Toulouse and Perpignan, hit a side of the mountain. According to witnesses, the vehicle zigzagged and rubbed the safety barrier for more than a kilometer on this mountainous road between the Pyrénées-Orientales, Ariège, Andorra and Spain, before hitting the rock and turn around on the roadway. On board were, in addition to the driver, 46 passengers, Colombians and Spaniards who had come from Barcelona to spend the day in Andorra.

An investigation was opened to determine the causes of the accident. “Whether it was a human error, whether it was 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 by the police, for the purposes of the investigation.

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Nearly 200 firefighters were mobilized on site, coming from the Pyrénées-Orientales, as well as the neighboring departments of Ariège and Aude. They also received reinforcement from Catalan and Andorran firefighters, who came to support in this border area.

The injured were evacuated to hospital centers in Toulouse, Perpignan, Foix and Puigcerda, around twenty kilometers from the scene of the accident, on the Spanish side of the border.

In an area difficult to access for rescue workers, at around 2,000 meters above sea level, five helicopters were sent as reinforcements.

“The results are subject to change,” the prefecture said in the evening. The delivery times for aid are long, hence the mobilization of helicopters to help the victims, a police source told AFP.