The Beaune coach crash occurred on 31 July 1982 on the French A6 motorway near

Beaune Beaune (; in Burgundian: ''Beane'') is widely considered to be the wine capital of Burgundy in the Côte d'Or department in eastern France. It is located between Lyon and Dijon. Beaune is one of the key wine centers in France, and a major ...

, in the Côte-d’Or

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

of east-central

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It is the second deadliest

road traffic collision A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Tra ...

in France's history after the

2016 Nice truck attack On the evening of 14 July 2016, a 19-tonne cargo truck was deliberately driven into crowds of people celebrating Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, resulting in the deaths of 86 people and injuring 450 others. The driver w ...

. 53 people died, including 46 children (44 on the coach and 2 in a car). Most of the victims were on board a

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

that caught fire as a result of the collision. The coach passengers were from

Crépy-en-Valois Crépy-en-Valois (, ) is a commune located in the Oise department in northern France. It is located in the Paris Metropolitan Area, northeast of the center of Paris. History Crépy-en-Valois was founded in the tenth century by the count of ...

in the

Oise Oise ( ; ; ) is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise. Inhabitants of the department are called ''Oisiens'' () or ''Isariens'', after the Latin name for the river, Isara. It had a population of 829,419 in 2019.< ...

département of

Picardy Picardy (; Picard language, Picard and , , ) is a historical and cultural territory and a former regions of France, administrative region located in northern France. The first mentions of this province date back to the Middle Ages: it gained it ...

, northern France.

The accident

At 8:00 pm on 30 July 1982, two coaches left Crépy-en-Valois, a town located approximately 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. They were carrying children and their teachers heading to a

summer camp A summer camp, also known as a sleepaway camp or residential camp, is a supervised overnight program for children conducted during the summer vacation from school in many countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer residential camps ...

in Aussois in

Savoie Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population o ...

, in the

French Alps The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such a ...

. In the middle of the night, the two coaches were on the A6, heading towards

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

. When they passed Beaune, it was raining and traffic was heavy on a day that is known as '' samedi noir'' ("black Saturday") in France, as many people leave for their summer holidays on this day. At around 1:45 am, the general speed of traffic dropped due to the motorway becoming narrower, reducing from three lanes to two. Two cars, which were overtaking the two coaches at the point where the road narrowed, cut across behind one of the coaches and in front of the other. At the same time, the leading coach braked suddenly due to a slow-moving vehicle ahead. The second coach hit the back of the second car, causing a

pile-up A multiple-vehicle collision (colloquially known as a pileup or multi-car collision), is a road traffic collision involving many vehicles. Generally occurring on high-capacity and high-speed routes such as freeways, they are one of the deadliest ...

. The

fuel tank A fuel tank (also called a petrol tank or gas tank) is a safe container for Flammability, flammable fluids, often gasoline or diesel fuel. Though any storage tank for fuel may be so called, the term is typically applied to part of an engine sys ...

of one of the cars was ripped open and emptied onto the road, and the petrol ignited. Six vehicles caught fire. The first coach was evacuated by the drivers and teachers. In the second coach, a side exit was blocked by a crashed car. Nevertheless, two teachers managed to let around 15 children out through the back of the vehicle, but 44 remained trapped inside along with two drivers and two teachers. In the two cars that were travelling between the coaches, a total of five people, including two children, were killed (there were no survivors in these two cars).

Victims

Families were informed of the accident at 6 am. The names of the children who had died were announced by the mayor of Crépy-en-Valois at around 11 am, in alphabetical order. Few of the bodies were identifiable. The funerals took place in Crépy-en-Valois on 3 August 1982. French President

François Mitterrand François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was a French politician and statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest holder of that position in the history of France. As a former First ...

attended. The bodies that could not be identified were buried together under a large headstone in the cemetery in Crépy-en-Valois. The

insurance company Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

had to pay out 12 million francs to the victims’ families.

Investigation

Following a trial, the coach company’s contractor received a suspended 18-month prison sentence and a fine of 25,000

French francs The franc (; , ; sign: F or Fr), also commonly distinguished as the (FF), was a currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money. It ...

. This was because the vehicle was found to have had seriously defective

brakes A brake is a mechanical device that inhibits motion by absorbing energy from a moving system. It is used for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle, wheel, axle, or to prevent its motion, most often accomplished by means of friction. Background ...

. One of the drivers received a suspended 6-month prison sentence, his

driving licence A driver's license, driving licence, or driving permit is a legal authorization, or the official document confirming such an authorization, for a specific individual to operate one or more types of motorized vehicles—such as motorcycles, car ...

was suspended and he was fined 2,300 francs.

Legislative consequences

The

Minister of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

at the time, Charles Fiterman, reacted by implementing strict measures, which remain in place today. The maximum

speed limit Speed limits on road traffic, as used in most countries, set the legal maximum speed at which vehicles may travel on a given stretch of road. Speed limits are generally indicated on a traffic sign reflecting the maximum permitted speed, express ...

for coaches was reduced, while the speed limit for all vehicles in rainy conditions was reduced to 110 km/h (68 mph) on

motorways A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

and 80 km/h (50 mph) on other roads. Transporting groups of children is now forbidden during the busy weekends of late July and early August. All heavy vehicles (such as

HGVs A large goods vehicle (LGV), or heavy goods vehicle (HGV), in the European Union (EU) is any lorry with a Gross combined weight rating, gross combination mass (GCM) of over . Sub-category N2 is used for vehicles between 3,500 kg and and N ...

and coaches) must now be equipped with a mechanical speed-limitation device, and it is strictly forbidden for the user to tamper with or modify this device in any way. Furthermore, manufacturers of vehicles destined for

public transportation Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whi ...

must use non-combustible and non-toxic materials and must make the windscreen out of

laminated glass Laminated glass is a type of safety glass consisting of two or more layers of glass with one or more thin polymer interlayers between them which prevent the glass from breaking into large sharp pieces. Breaking produces a characteristic "spider ...

Memorials

A memorial was erected in 1985 at a road-side rest area near Curney, in the commune of Merceuil, very close to the crash site. The child victims of the accident are buried in the cemetery in Crépy-en-Valois. The plaques feature their names, and some families lost several children. Marie-Andrée Martin – who lost three children and had a fourth who was in the accident but survived – created the ''Association des victimes de Beaune'' (“Beaune Victims' Association”), which became a member of the ''Fédération nationale des victims d’accidents collectifs'' (“National Federation for Victims of Public-Transport Accidents”). Each year since the accident, the town hall in Crépy-en-Valois has commemorated the tragedy on the anniversary date.

References