It is a tragedy that bereaves, this Wednesday evening, the Jura night. A terrible car accident claimed the lives of four high school students at the end of the afternoon, not far from Fonttenu (Jura). While their vehicle was traveling on an apparently icy road, according to the first elements of the investigation, it would have swerved and fell about ten meters, ending its race in Lake Chalain, reports France Blue. The vehicle quickly sank in this lake which was beginning to freeze, trapping its occupants in the passenger compartment.
Only one of the five occupants of the vehicle was able to get out, it would be the passenger installed in the middle at the back of the vehicle, according to local radio. It was he who was able to stop a passer-by so that they alerted the emergency services, mobilized by the dozens. He was evacuated by paramedics with hypothermia. The other four are deceased. Three were minors, aged 15 for two of them, 17 for the other, according to the mayor of Fonttenu contacted by the Parisian.
“The gendarmes threw themselves into the water to extract the occupants of the vehicle but did not succeed”, tells AFP Lionel Pascal, public prosecutor of Lons-le-Saunier. The owner of the vehicle, which is assumed to have been the driver, was just of age. An investigation has been opened to find out all the circumstances of this tragedy. The four bodies were taken to Lons-le-Saunier hospital so that relatives could identify them, AFP said.
All the passengers in this car, a Peugeot 206 according to the Voice of the Jura, were interns at Paul-Émile Victor Champagnole’s high school. “We are all in shock. These young people were surely going to spend a convivial afternoon, enjoy their Wednesday afternoon without classes, ”said Mayor Alexandre Perrin of Fonttenu, this town of 80 inhabitants where the tragedy took place. According to the elected official, it has been several days since the negative temperatures caused ice on the roads.
“We couldn’t stand it was so slippery”
“Today we had freezing rain. The main axes were salted, but not this two kilometer dead end road that runs along the lake. When I got there, we couldn’t even stand up as it was slipping! “, he testifies to the Parisian.
The young driver, who had just had the license according to the city councilor, “was unlucky”. Indeed, many trees are planted in the fifteen meters that separate the road from this former glacier of 220 ha. “No log got in their way to stop them. They went to the wrong place at the wrong time. »
A psychological unit will be set up in the school, three staff, psychologists, were there this evening. This Thursday morning, the Public Prosecutor of Lons-le-Saunier, the rector of the academy and the sub-prefect will go to the school, confirms France Bleu.
The president of the Bourgogne-France-Comté region, Marie-Guite Dufay, shared her emotion on Twitter. “I learn with great sadness the tragedy that occurred this evening at Lake Chalain. My thoughts go out to the families of the victims and the entire educational community of the school, ”she wrote on her account.