BORDEAUX, France, Oct. 23 (UPI) — At least 42 people were killed Friday morning when a bus and a truck collided on a rural French road and caught fire, local officials said.
Another eight people were injured. The bus was carrying senior citizens on a day trip when it was hit by a lumber-carrying truck swerving around a corner of the D17 secondary road in the village of Puisseguin, 35 miles east of Bordeaux in southwestern France.
A local government statement said two of the injured had head trauma, two others sustained burns and four others were slightly injured.
About 60 firefighters were involved in extinguishing the fire, which is presumed to have killed many of the victims. The truck driver died at the scene.
Local residents said the corner where the accident occurred has a reputation for being dangerous.
“[The truck] crossed to the other side of the road. The bus driver saw the accident before it happened and tried to avoid it, but the truck hit into him,” Puisseguin told French radio network RTL, the New York Times reported.
French President Francois Hollande said in a statement, “It is an enormous tragedy” and noted on his Twitter account the government is “fully mobilized” to help. If the preliminary death count is confirmed, the road accident will be France’s worst since 1982, when 53 people, 44 of them children, died in Beaune, in central France.
