The snow and ice that fell on part of the country disrupted road and rail traffic in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Lozère on Tuesday and killed three people in road accidents in southern Burgundy.
Early in the morning of this Tuesday, three people died in separate accidents in Saône-et-Loire, where roads were made slippery by bad weather, according to the local Center for Engineering and Traffic Management (CIGT).
A motorist died after hitting a heavy goods vehicle near Dommartin-lès-Cuiseaux (Saône-et-Loire) on the A39, firefighters said. And two truck drivers died in the frontal collision of their trucks on a departmental road at the exit of Romenay (Saône-et-Loire). “This area was indeed slippery,” the firefighters said.
Disturbed traffic
The department was part of the areas placed by Météo-France on alert, with the Loire, Ain, Savoie, Haute-Savoie and the Rhône on the night of Monday to Tuesday. Tuesday morning, traffic was disrupted in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
“Due to a slippery road phenomenon, and despite the uninterrupted rotation of salting machines since yesterday afternoon” (Monday), traffic was interrupted for several hours on the A7 motorway between Bourg-lès-Valence and Tain-l’Hermitage (Drôme) towards Lyon, according to Vinci Autoroutes. In question, two heavy goods vehicles “in difficulty” which blocked traffic in the Valencia sector. Many traffic jams have been observed on the roads of the Rhône-Alpes region.
In Lozère, the A75 was cut in both directions early in the morning due to two heavy goods vehicle accidents. One of the trucks, overturned on the track on a viaduct west of Mende, was hit by a van around 3:30 a.m. last night. Three injuries were to be deplored. Traffic gradually resumed at midday in these areas, but with significant slowdowns.