IFor Libourne, this is the deadliest traffic accident since the Puisseguin tragedy in 2015 (43 deaths in the collision between a coach and a truck). For Gironde, one of the most terrible accidents of the last ten years.
During the night from Saturday to Sunday, around 2:30 a.m., a road exit on the D1089, nicknamed the Libourne ring road, caused the death of four people “in circumstances which have yet to be determined”, indicates the public prosecutor’s office in Libourne. The vehicle, a Renault Modus which was traveling in the direction of Coutras, deviated from its trajectory before hitting a tree on the shoulder.
Three of the five occupants died at the scene (one aged 20 and two aged 19), a fourth (17 years old) died at Libourne hospital where he had undergone an emergency operation this Sunday morning. The fifth (20 years old), seriously injured, suffers from numerous fractures, but his vital prognosis is not in jeopardy.
Two police custody in progress
The circumstances of the accident remain unclear. Especially since this happened in the middle of a straight line, between the roundabout of the Ange bakery, in Libourne, and the light allowing you to turn towards the hospital, on an axis limited to 70 km/hour, with little traffic. in the middle of the night. In his press release published on the City’s Facebook page, Mayor Philippe Buisson, currently traveling in Germany, evokes “uncertain and ambiguous” circumstances, which “unfortunately seem extremely more complex than a simple road accident”, adds -he.
The news, accompanied by speculation, quickly circulated on social networks, and in the Libourne bastide, on this Sunday market day. If, in the middle of the day this Sunday, the prosecution did not confirm any hypothesis, it nevertheless indicated, in a press release sent around 5:30 p.m., that “two people driving other vehicles were placed in police custody after noon “.
Returning from an evening in the Dordogne
The five friends, Mathéo, Donovan, Jonathan, Tarek and Rayan, are all from Coutras and its region, notably from the village Les Peintures. They apparently spent the evening in Moulin-Neuf, in Dordogne, in the canton of Montpon-Ménestérol, twenty kilometers from Coutras.
“We were at my mother-in-law’s house. They left around 1:30 a.m. or 2 a.m., but we don’t understand what they were doing in Libourne, they told us they were going home,” says Élisa, present with many friends with Jonathan’s mother , 17 years old, all of whom had just learned of his death. “He was waiting until he was 18 to get his license soon and find work,” confides the young girl in tears.
A sixth occupant is mentioned by the group of friends. This would have been filed before the accident occurred. Did he live near Libourne? The open investigation into the charge of manslaughter, entrusted to the community of brigades of the Libourne gendarmerie, with the assistance of the research brigade, will have to determine this. The rigorous analyzes for narcotics and blood alcohol levels will also be carried out. “When they left, we told the most drunk: ‘Above all, don’t get behind the wheel!’” says Élisa, who did not then see who started the vehicle.
“A vision of horror”
According to the on-call official dispatched to the scene, “the shock was extremely violent”, resulting in “a vision of horror”. To the point that the mayor intends to mobilize a psychological unit with representatives of the emergency and gendarmerie services who first arrived on the scene.
The City’s surveillance videos are being analyzed to try to provide more information to the investigators in charge of the case. The prosecution is planning a press briefing Monday evening or Tuesday depending on the progress of the investigations.
