Four high school students are reported to have died on Wednesday after their car fell into the Lac de Chalain lake in France.
According to the report by AFP, the accident that killed the four students after their car fell into the Lac de Chalain lake, was due to the icy nature of the roadway.
The car fell into Lake Chalain, east of Lons-le-Saunier, in the Jura, after the driver lost control on the icy road. One of the occupants was able to get out of the vehicle to give the alert, but the effort was in vain. A police investigation has been opened to determine the exact circumstances of the tragedy, the report stated.
The Accident At The Lac de Chalain:
According to the report by AFP, the occupants in the car were five and were travelling around 5 p.m. on Wednesday on a private road in the Lac de Chalain area, the largest lake in the Jura, located between Lons-le-Saunier and the Swiss border. On the right of this road, a wooded slope, on the left is the lake about ten meters below.
Presumably, the car lost control and sank into the lake”, explains on BFMTV David Philot, the prefect of Jura.
Sheltered from the sun, the road, private access which had not been salted, was “extremely icy”, specifies the public prosecutor of Lons-le-Saunier.
“Yesterday, there were several dozen rescuers and investigators on the scene, none stood on the road because it was impossible to stand there without risking falling (…)”, continues Lionel Pascal, who went there. An ice storm, which he says is not visible to drivers.
“We do not make the difference between the road which 100 meters higher is passable and 100 meters further on is completely icy”, evokes the prosecutor, speaking of “a tricky element for a young driver”.
In its fall, the vehicle touched a single tree. Insufficient to slow down his race, “a fact of fate” for the magistrate, while the area is very wooded. The car ended up submerged near the shore of the lake. Only the rear of the vehicle, a Peugeot 206, overturned on its side, is visible. The operations to get the car out, made difficult due to the weather conditions, could not begin until Thursday morning.
One of the occupants of the vehicle managed to get out quickly. He joined the edge of the lake, returned to the road, where he met a vehicle. The passerby alerted the emergency services. A gendarmerie patrol, which was circulating near the scene of the tragedy, immediately went to the scene.
Two gendarmes dived to try to extract the four other occupants of the car. In icy water, they did not succeed. The two soldiers were also in a state of hypothermia after their attempt to help the four young people.
“The causes of death will have to be determined medically but the hypothesis of drowning and hypothermia is clearly favoured”, specifies the public prosecutor, recalling that a judicial investigation has been opened.
The 16-year-old young man, the only survivor of the accident, was hospitalized. He was also in a state of hypothermia. He has not yet been heard by investigators. “Physically it’s fine, but psychologically it’s very complicated,” explains David Philot.
Among the victims, three were minors, aged 15 to 17. The fourth victim, a 19-year-old adult, was the owner of the vehicle. It was she, a student in Terminale, who was probably driving during the tragedy. All are from the Jura.
They were all students of the Paul-Émile Victor general and technical high school, in Champagnole, about twenty kilometres from the scene of the accident. Four of them were internal. The five young people had taken advantage of an authorized outing.