PUISSEGUIN, France — A French investigator says it’s far too early to know the cause of a fiery crash between a truck and a bus full of retirees that killed 43 people Friday morning — France’s deadliest road accident in more than 30 years.
Christophe Auger, the prosecutor for Libourne in southwest France’s wine region, said “it’s impossible at this stage” to say why the tourist bus and the empty truck crashed on a winding road near the village of Puisseguin, 30 miles east of Bordeaux. The crash killed 41 bus passengers, the truck driver and his 3-year-old son. Four other people were badly injured. The bus driver survived.
Auger said investigators’ top priority in the coming days is to identify the victims, a task made difficult by the charred state of their remains. Experts expect it will take three weeks before all victims are identified.
In the meantime, experts will begin analyzing the wreckage and collecting testimony from survivors, including the bus driver, to try to understand the cause of the crash, Auger said.
