The driver was stuck in his cabin
In the cabin, on the verge of being submerged, the bumper in the water, two occupants. A woman, aged 45, of Romanian nationality, passenger in the truck, whom the firefighters took care of when she had to extract herself from the vehicle. And a man, the driver, aged 56, also Romanian, stuck in the crushed metal sheets of the cabin. His shoulder was stuck. It took firefighters two hours to extricate him and extract him from the cabin. Seriously injured, he was taken care of by the Smur team in Angoulême.
The entire road had to be secured so that the firefighters could help the driver, who was in a difficult position.
The operation proved particularly delicate. “It was about freeing her, saving her arm. the position of the cabin, returned to the surface of the Boëme, complicated things,” explains Commander Didier Rémy, COS, commander of the rescue operations.
Divers and GRIMP
It was necessary to bring emergency services in the wrong direction from the Auchan roundabout, in La Couronne, and then “secure the cabin which could at any time slip and plunge into the water so that rescue operations could be carried out” , specifies Commander Rémy. It required the intervention of several specialized teams of firefighters. A total of 44 firefighters were deployed to the site.
The driver was taken care of by the firefighters and the SAMU
The heavy truck was secured by men from the USAR, the rescue, support and search unit. their maneuver was further secured by the tow truck responsible for lifting the road assembly. The operation required the intervention of GRIMP, the intervention group in dangerous environments. They had to secure the only access to the truck’s cabin, via the embankment, steep and made slippery by the rain.
Pollution on the Boëme
“We also mobilized the divers,” emphasizes Commander Rémy. “They were ready to intervene, in the water and from their boat to save the driver from drowning if the cabin had accidentally slipped. The operation was effective. The heavy goods vehicle did not move.
Specialized teams had to intervene.
The driver was transported “in absolute emergency” to the Girac hospital, as was his passenger.
The firefighters also had to deploy their pollution risk unit. The fuel from the truck had indeed spilled into the Boëme. They deployed tarpaulins and cans before installing barriers on the watercourse.
They even had a fire truck planned. “We always fear the heating of a battery.”
A major traffic jam on the RN 10 closed to traffic
The accident completely paralyzed the RN 10 and a major traffic jam quickly formed upstream, as far as Roullet. Very quickly, the gendarmes cut off access to the national road and took the vehicles out via the Roullet activity zone interchange towards the old RN 10 as far as the Auchan interchange, and La Couronne once again experienced traffic jams worthy of the Angoulême diversion.
At the end of the day, around 8 p.m., the damaged heavy goods vehicle still had to be lifted and towed. The investigators from the police station will then have to determine the exact causes and circumstances of this accident and explain the loss of control of the heavy goods vehicle driver. This type of accident, particularly spectacular, remains very rare. In February 2022, in Mansle, a truck also left the road and crashed below the embankment. But there was no water under the bridge.
