Coach crash kills 26 Poles in French Alps

Coach crash kills 26 Poles in French Alps

	Published : Sun, 22 Jul 2007 20:21 By : Agencies Print this Story

GRENOBLE, France (Thomson Financial) - Twenty-six people were killed Sunday when a coach carrying Polish pilgrims skidded out of control and into a ravine in the French Alps, emergency services said.

Twenty-four people were injured, 14 of them seriously.

The coach, with 48 passengers and two drivers on board, was going down a steep and winding road between Gap and Grenoble when it had problems with its brakes at around 9:30 am (0730 GMT) near the town of Vizille, officials said.

The party, mostly elderly and from the Szczecin region of northeast Poland, was returning from the Roman Catholic shrine of Notre Dame de la Salette, where the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared to two children in 1846.

The Polish-registered vehicle smashed through a safety barrier on the side of the road and hurtled 40 metres onto the banks of the river Romanche below, where it burst into flames.

Motorcyclists behind the coach at the time told investigators it was moving downhill at 70 kilometers per hour with its brake lights on. Sparks flew as it picked up speed on the last stretch and plunged through the barrier, they said.

Locals immediately rushed to try to put out the blaze with buckets of water.

Large numbers of rescue workers were called to the scene, including divers searching for victims who might have been thrown into the water.

The injured were shuttled to hospitals by ambulance and helicopter.

Five hours after the accident, rescue workers said all on board were accounted for. Police said one driver was among the dead.

Known as the Route Napoleon because it was the road taken by the emperor on his return from Elba in 1815, the tortuous RN85 from Gap to Grenoble has been the scene of many accidents over the years.

Three coach crashes at exactly the same spot in the 1970s caused 77 deaths.

Meanwhile, 26 people were hurt, five of them seriously, in a coach crash in western Poland. Firefighters said the coach was travelling between Moscow and Paris.

The 47 passengers on board were believed to be Belarussians.

tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com

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