The car had probably slipped on the icy road before falling into Lake Chalain (Jura). One of the five passengers had managed to get out of the vehicle, the only survivor of this accident which claimed the lives of four high school students. Two weeks after the tragedy, the investigation showed that the young driver had committed “no driving fault”, noted Wednesday the prosecutor of Lons-le-Saunier, Lionel Pascal.
The sole survivor, aged 15, was heard by investigators on January 29. “He confirmed that it was the young adult, the only driver’s license holder in the group, who was driving the vehicle,” Lionel Pascal said in a statement. “The witness specified that the driver was driving at an appropriate speed, but that in a slight curve to the right the vehicle had gone straight. Despite the driver’s attempts to rectify the trajectory, the vehicle left the road and then rolled down the slope and then rolled over before entering the water upside down, ”continued the prosecutor.
“He swam about a meter to reach the shore”
“The young man said he was able to detach himself and get out of the vehicle through a broken window. He was then in a place where he had no foot. He swam about a meter to reach the shore “before alerting a motorist who called the emergency services, he added.
Despite the rapid arrival at the scene of the gendarmes and firefighters, the four young people locked in the car “died of drowning which occurred very quickly for three of them. One of the minors had survived until the arrival of the gendarmes but succumbed to the combination of hypothermia and drowning before the arrival of the firefighters, ”noted the prosecutor again. The toxicological examinations of the driver proved negative, and a video filming the road upstream of the accident site shows that the car was traveling at an appropriate speed. The investigations are continuing.