The public prosecutor's office requested Thursday before the Bordeaux Court of Appeal the reopening of the investigation concerning the coach accident in Puisseguin (Gironde), which had cost the lives of 43 people in 2015, the majority of retirees on excursion , we learned from one of the lawyers for the civil parties.
The investigating chamber will make its decision on March 3, according to Me Antoine Chambolle.
At the end of October 2021, six years almost to the day after the tragedy, the Libourne investigating judge had issued a dismissal order in the investigation into the deadliest bus accident in France since that of Beaune in 1982 (53 dead, mostly children).
The Libourne prosecutor's office and the lawyers for the civil parties appealed against this decision.
On the morning of October 23, 2015, a semi-trailer had swerved to the left out of the village of Puisseguin, east of Bordeaux, and had jackknifed before hitting a bus coming in the opposite direction.
Read alsoDismissal pronounced in the investigation into the bus accident which had killed 43 people in Puisseguin
Trapped in the bus invaded by flames and toxic fumes, 41 people on board were burned to death or asphyxiated.
Eight had survived.
The truck driver and his three-year-old son died in the accident.
According to Me Chambolle, the Advocate General also requested additional information on Thursday for the purposes of indicting three companies: the dealer of the tractor of the semi-trailer, the company renting this vehicle and the one who used it the day of the accident.
“
These requisitions are positive for us.
We have more than 50% chance that this case will go back to the investigation
”, estimated Me Chambolle, who however declared himself “
disappointed
” that the Advocate General did not request additional investigations targeting the manufacturer of the coach.
No indictment was issued during the investigation.