A 17-year-old Frenchwoman and a 29-year-old Colombian were killed on Sunday in the accident in Belgium of a BlaBlaCar bus, the Antwerp prosecutor’s office said on Monday (north). The driver, a 35-year-old Frenchman, is suspected of driving under the influence of narcotics. The prosecution requested that he be remanded in custody. He must be presented by Tuesday to justice after his hearing by the federal police. An investigation has been opened for manslaughter, involuntary assault and battery, driving under the influence of drugs and lack of control of the vehicle, the same source said.
The accident, which also left 10 seriously injured – including five for whom the vital prognosis was still engaged on Monday – occurred on Sunday at midday on the E19 motorway north of Antwerp, shortly before the Dutch border. For an as yet undetermined reason, a red bus with the BlaBlacar logo, registered in France, deviated from its traffic lane then hit a concrete barrier, before lying on its side, the windshield burst.
According to witnesses and CCTV images, no other vehicle was involved, and the exit from the road was done “gradually” before the collision with the guardrail. The bus, which made the Paris-Lille-Amsterdam connection, was carrying 30 travelers aged 16 to 39: 17 French, three Americans, two Germans, two Colombians, two Mexicans, two Canadians, an Italian and a Croat, detailed the wooden floor.
BlaBlaCar has launched an investigation
The nationalities of the injured were not specified. A total of 13 people were still hospitalized the day after the accident, including the driver who had to be treated for minor injuries before he could be heard. After the accident, he underwent a saliva drug test which was positive. However, “a new analysis of blood and saliva should now make it possible to determine with more certainty whether he was driving under the influence”, continued the prosecution.
According to the BlaBlacar platform, which said it was “deeply affected” by the tragedy, the bus was chartered by the company VIC, the partner operating this Paris-Amsterdam link. “Although drug checks are not legally required for the driver to start the bus (unlike what exists for alcohol), we apply strict procedures to select and check our bus partners”, assured the platform in a statement on Sunday.
“We have launched an investigation to understand how such a security failure could have occurred and will take the necessary measures to ensure that such a tragedy cannot happen again,” she added.