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Post by pcpa on Aug 1, 2022 1:42:52 GMT 1
I had not heard of this tragedy before, despite spending considerable time at Crépy en Valois nobody had ever spoken of it, perhaps understandable.
Many of the safety measures in place today like the reduced speed limits on autoroutes are as a direct result of this tragedy, also others that I was not even aware of like a ban on transport collectif of children during the holiday changeover period.
Warning, some quite upsetting scenes.
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suein56
Member
Southern Morbihan 56 Brittany
Posts: 7,464
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Post by suein56 on Aug 1, 2022 9:20:23 GMT 1
A genuine tragedy .. with horrific consequences.
And which raised so many questions .. notably about the speed the two coaches were travelling at in the early hours .. whether they were racing each other down the motorway etc.
One family lost 7 children .. they must have been numb with unimaginable pain and distress.
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Post by pcpa on Aug 1, 2022 11:36:58 GMT 1
Lots of contributory factors but I doubt that they were racing but simply driving in convoy, a fully laden Autocar would struggle to exceed the then speed limit by any significant margin. Defective brakes, Autocar in front probably not leaving enough braking distance (driver was convicted) but remember this was a bottleneck where 3 lanes merged into 2 and the second coach having left a safe gap saw it swallowed by a couple of chancers cutting in at the last minute, this combined with the first coach having to brake hard because the German coach in front of that had done the same (no doubt through someone else cutting in late) and suddenly 2 cars are trying to squeeze into a space that was no longer there. That would be frightening enough at 30kph, at 130kph unthinkable. In the decade before that my ex-girlfriends father was left orphaned at 6 years old (figures from memory) in a head on collision on one of the then 3 lane roads where the centre lane was used by overtakers from both directions, remember those? Same holiday changeover weekend, known accident blackspot, his whole family, parents and 2 siblings killed as were all of the occupants of the other vehicle, he was the sole survivor  He told me that back then fatal accidents like that were happening all the time and guaranteed to multiply during the chassé croisé week-ends. |
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Post by pcpa on Aug 1, 2022 11:38:25 GMT 1
Road fatalities are down to 1/4 of what they were in the bad old days despite their being far more vehicles on the roads.
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Post by flober on Aug 1, 2022 22:21:17 GMT 1
You have to factor in car safety advances, air bags,compulsory seat belts, crumple zones etc these things didn't exist before.
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Post by pcpa on Aug 1, 2022 23:23:10 GMT 1
What makes you think that I hadn't?
All of the safety features you cite existed before 1982 and with the exception of airbags which became widespread 7 years later they were fitted to new vehicles, seatbelts had been a compulsory fitment since 1967, use of them mandatory since 1983, not sure about France.
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