Rampe de Laffrey

The 1946 accident was the first in a string of fatal accidents along this stretch of road, which has been claimed as one of the deadliest in France. 18 people were killed when a bus lost the use of its brakes, flying off the road and into a ravine along the Romanche; the bus was transporting pilgrims from Beaujolais on a return journey from Our Lady of La Salette, where they had been celebrating the Marian Year.[5] A memorial to the dead was later erected near the town of Saint-Pierre-de-Mésage, close to the accident site.

Memorial to the pilgrims killed in the 1973 accident

The 18 July 1973 accident remains, as of 2007, the worst ever to have occurred along that stretch of roadway.[6] A bus was carrying Belgian pilgrims from Braine-le-Comte returning from a visit to the shrine of Our Lady of La Salette; it missed a curve at the base of the road, near its intersection with the bridge over the Romanche, and overturned. Forty-three people were killed and six injured in the resulting crash.[6][7] After the crash the mayor of Laffrey condemned the route as being particularly dangerous, as it had already claimed over one hundred lives over the previous quarter-century.[8]

The accident is sometimes referred to as the accident de Vizille because it occurred very close to the entrance of the town of that name; the crash site, however, is actually located within the boundaries of the commune of Notre-Dame-de-Mésage. Today a memorial to the victims stands at the site of the accident; it claims the number of dead as forty-five.

In an accident on 2 April 1975, 29 pilgrims from Sully-sur-Loire in Loiret were killed when their bus lost its brakes at the bottom of the road, causing it to fly over a ravine at a speed estimated at 120 kilometers an hour; it then crashed into a garden and overturned. As a result of this crash, more careful regulation of electronic braking systems was instituted across France, as were annual inspections of heavy vehicles.[9]

View of the accident site, with the destroyed wall and tire tracks from the bus still visible

View of the accident site taken eight days later from near the town of Vizille

In circumstances similar to those of the two previous accidents, on 22 July 2007 at 9:30 am, a Polish bus carrying fifty people apparently lost the use of its brakes at the base of the hill. It missed the final curve of the descent and overturned into a ravine near the Romanche, where it immediately burst into flames. The accident occurred at almost the same spot at which a Belgian bus suffered the same fate in 1973, killing 43. Provisional figures as of 9 August put the death toll at 26, with 24 injured, 9 of them seriously, and 3 in intensive care. The accident provoked an outpouring of public support both in France and in Poland. French Prime Minister François Fillon and Jean-Louis Borloo, then the Minister of Ecology and in charge of transport, immediately went to the scene of the accident. Polish president Lech Kaczyński quickly came to Grenoble, where he was met by French president Nicolas Sarkozy; together, the two men visited the bedsides of several victims who had been transported to various local hospitals.

The bus, loaded with pilgrims from Szczecin, Świnoujście, Warsaw and Stargard Szczeciński, had left Poland on 10 July for the start of a tour of Marian sanctuaries in southern Europe. It had made stops at Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal and at Our Lady of Lourdes, and finished at the sanctuary of Our Lady of La Salette.[10] It crashed on its return trip to Poland; 47 pilgrims, a chaperone, and two drivers, all Polish, were on board.[10]

An inquiry immediately established that the bus should never have been driving along the Rampe in the first place, as use of the road is severely restricted, and forbidden to heavy vehicles without local authorization. This authorization was rarely given, and only for specially equipped vehicles on local transport routes. Eyewitness testimony from survivors indicated that the driver, who, at 22, was the younger of the two assigned to the tour and had had his driver's license for only 10 months, had voluntarily ignored the itinerary.[11] He had chosen instead to follow a shorter route indicated on his GPS,[11] in the process passing no fewer than 14 signs indicating that passage on the road was forbidden to heavy vehicles.[11] Both the other driver and the chaperone were severely injured but survived the crash.

Memorials to the two accidents, in 1973 and 2007.

The bus involved in the accident was a Scania that had entered into circulation in July 2000.[12] According to the Polish operator of the tour, it had passed a technical inspection in Germany three weeks prior to the accident without question. It is not known if the bus was equipped with a speed-reduction system; similar recently built vehicles have been designed with a backup system, either electromagnetic or hydraulic, in addition to the usual brakes.

Motorists who were following the bus during its descent indicated that the brake lights appeared to be working normally.[12] Other drivers, however, indicated that they had seen sparks coming from the undercarriage, suggesting that the brakes may have indeed failed. In addition, a survivor said in her testimony that the driver had warned passengers during the descent, crying out that the brakes had gone; she also said that just before this she had heard something crack under the bus.[13]

President Kaczynski's entry in a condolence book for the victims

At a press conference on 25 July, Prime Minister Fillon announced that additional restrictions along the roadway would immediately be planned. Flashing signs were to be installed, as were speed bumps as high as the former signs at the location. At the end of September special gantries were also to have been placed, preventing the entry of vehicles over a certain height. A barrier was also planned, containing a magnetic card designed to recognize only certain service vehicles that are authorized to use the road.[14] By January 2008, no gantries had been placed at the site, and only a few of the signs were ready for use. Furthermore, there was a good deal of evidence that unauthorized vehicles still used the road.[15]

The gantries were inaugurated in July 2008.[16]

On 8 October 2007 President Kaczynski presented a special decoration to 32 people who had participated in rescue efforts after the accident. The ceremony took place at the Polish embassy in Paris.[17]

View of the roadway near the town of Notre-Dame-de-Mésage

After a pair of accidents in the 1970s, the route was heavily reworked to make it safer for light vehicles and load-bearing vehicles, but modifications to safely accommodate buses were considered too expensive and difficult. The road was widened, and several sections near the summit were expanded to three lanes. Vehicles over eight tons and buses, except those serving regular local routes, were banned from using the road without specific authorization from the local prefect.[18] Those local and regular services are allowed only on specially designed vehicles with speed-reducers. Buses and trucks coming from the regular route are requested to exit at La Mure and to take secondary road 529 past the massif of Conest towards Grenoble. Many violations of this rule have been noted, though.[18] To discourage violators, a sign with a skull with flickering eyes was formerly installed at the top of the road;[19] however, it was soon removed after being considered in poor taste and politically incorrect.

On 25 July 2007, as a result of the most recent accident on the ramp, French Prime Minister François Fillon held a press conference to announce a series of measures to prevent such a heavy vehicle from attempting the descent again. Flashing signs were installed within days, as were speed bumps at the level of the road signs, designed to ensure driver attention to these signs. In July 2008, height gauges were also set up to physically prevent access for vehicles over a certain height. Authorised vehicles, such as local buses equipped with an improved braking system, are issued with a magnetic card allowing them to bypass the height gauge.