France paid a national homage on Tuesday to the 43 victims of a collision between a coach carrying pensioners and a trailer lorry. About 800 people gathered under a white tent raised on the football pitch of Petit-Palais, the village in southwest France which was home to 28 of the deceased.
When the families of the victims arrived, the entire audience rose, including president Francois Hollande, prime minister Manuel Valls and five cabinet ministers. They stood in silence for a long moment.
The mayors of the six villages who lost inhabitants spoke first. The elderly victims of the road crash "had lived through hard times after the (second World) War," said Patricia Raichini, mayor of Petit-Palais. "Most worked the land… They were witnesses of another era, who did not always understand the perpetual transformation of our world… Part of our memory has been snuffed out."
Martine Cruzel, the mayor of Lussac, said her town had never known such sadness. "The tragedies we knew of were far away. We were not indifferent, but we felt the distant compassion of those not affected. We are grief-stricken today because it is here… at home."
The village of Porcheres lost five people. "Since Friday, October 23, there are three houses where no one closes the shutters or turns on the lights, where the dogs have no masters, where no one collects the mail," said Mayor David Redon. "It will take time to accept that we will no longer see them in the bakery and post office…"
Each of the six mayors seemed to choke back tears. People could be seen sobbing in the audience. President Hollande rose to speak, flanked by the mayors. The eldest victim was 94 years-old, he noted, the youngest, the son of the lorry driver, was only three.
“They were supposed to listen to a storyteller, eat in a restaurant and then come home together in the evening,” Mr Hollande said. “On a country road that winds through vineyards and woods, they entered hell.”
All had devoted time and energy to the community, the president said, “because a town is a miniature Republic within the great one”. The deceased “were our inheritance… No one knows better than you the void they will leave in the villages.”
Mr Hollande praised “the courage of anonymous heros”: the coach driver who had the presence of mind to open the doors before impact; the passenger who went back into the burning coach to pull others out; a motorist who also braved flames to rescue people. Thanks to them, eight passengers survived.
Twenty-four investigators are still working on the site of the crash. Christophe Auger, the prosecutor of Libourne, announced earlier that brake marks indicate the lorry slid to the left of the wet, slippery road. A metal strip was propelled by the impact into the reserve fuel tank, starting the fire.
“Nothing is more necessary or urgent than to give the remains to the families, and to know the causes of the tragedy,” Mr Hollande said. To do otherwise “would give free reign to rumours and bitterness”.
There were 3,380 road deaths in France last year, Mr Hollande said. “If rules should be changed, they will be.”
The president listed the trials of the past year: jihadist attacks in Paris; three air crashes; floods and the storms that killed 17 on the Côte d’Azur at the beginning of October. “Whether we’re resisting terrorist threats or reacting to tragedy, the nation has always shown solidarity,” he said. “France is still a big family, and when compatriots are victims we mourn together. That is how one measures the strength of a country.”
