|
A trial for manslaughter against 16 individuals
and companies is to begin in France on Monday to apportion blame
for a 1999 inferno in the Mont Blanc tunnel in the French-Italian
Alps that killed 39 people.
Defendants include the Belgian driver of the truck
that was the origin of the fire; the truck's manufacturer, Volvo;
the French and Italian managers of the tunnel, ATMB and SITMB; safety
regulators; the mayor of the town of Chamonix; and a senior official
from the French Public Works Ministry.
.
On March 24, 1999, the driver, Gilbert Degrave, was on his regular
journey transporting flour and margarine when he saw fire and smoke
emerging from his vehicle when he was half-way inside the tunnel,
prompting him to stop and escape on foot.
.
The fire spread to the traffic backed up behind, engulfing 24 goods
vehicles, nine cars and a motor-cycle in an inferno which raged
for more than two days and reached temperatures of 1,000 degrees
centigrade. Most of the dead suffocated in the poisonous smoke.
.
The technical report into the fire established a series of oversights
and blunders. The nearest smoke detector was out of order and the
radio frequencies used inside the tunnel were different from the
ones used by French emergency services.
.
It was also shown that the Italian authorities mistakenly pumped
fresh air into the fire zone -- unwittingly increasing its intensity
-- instead of extracting the smoke.
.
However arguments remain over the spark that set off the chain of
events -- whether it was a cigarette stub, a fault in the Volvo
engine, or poor maintenance.
.
Degrave is accused of failing to move his vehicle into a siding
so that the drivers trapped behind him could get past. But he denies
that this was possible.
.
The Swedish vehicle manufacturer Volvo faces allegations that it
knew of design faults in the engine of the lorry, which may have
been the cause of the fire.
.
The tunnel was closed for three years after the blaze and underwent
a major renovation, with computerised detection equipment, extra
security bays and a parallel escape shaft. Coordination between
the French and Italian sides -- which was strongly criticised in
the technical report -- has been improved.
.
Opened in 1965, the Mont Blanc tunnel had seen a vast increase in
heavy goods traffic in the years before the disaster. Today some
925 trucks pass through the tunnel on average every day -- down
from 2,120 per day before the fire.
.
The Italian company that jointly operates the tunnel, the SITMB,
this week paid 13.5 million euros (17.5 million dollars) into an
escrow account for the families of the victims.
.
It will be paid out once 80 percent of the 238 relatives agree to
accept it as settlement.
.
But SITMB's lawyer, Bernard Asso, stressed on Thursday: "This
is not an acknowledgement of liability.".
[Report from International Herald Tribune]
Mail
this page to a friend
What do you think? Tell us in the Chat
Room |
