PARIS, Nov 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A bridge collapse that killed two people in south-western France was apparently caused by a lorry that weighed too much, prosecutors say.
Two vehicles plunged into the River Tarn, north of Toulouse, when the bridge near the village of Mirepoix-sur-Tarn fell down on Monday morning.
One of the vehicles, a lorry, weighed more than 50 tonnes, prosecutors said.
The suspension bridge, built in 1931, could take a maximum weight of 19 tonnes.
“The fact that this heavy vehicle took the bridge… currently seems to be the immediate and apparent cause of the accident,” prosecutor Dominique Alzeari said at a news conference on Tuesday.
A 15-year-old girl and the truck driver were killed in the accident. The girl was travelling in a car with her mother when the bridge detached from suspension cables and collapsed into the river, authorities said.
The injured mother was pulled from the water by bystanders.
Five people were also seriously injured, including two rescuers and local people who had tried to save victims.
The truck driver, whose body has been found, was transporting drilling equipment across the bridge to his company, located a few hundred metres from the bridge.
The accident has drawn attention to bridge safety, a year after 43 people were killed when a bridge collapsed in the Italian city of Genoa.
Some 25,000 bridges around France are in need of urgent repair work, according to a Senate report. — NNN-AGENCIES
