At least six people have died in France in traffic accidents due to the cold wave and snow that has hit especially the northwest of the country since Monday, and which will continue with the passage of a new storm from next night.
Due to the problems caused by snow and ice, the Ministry of Transport announced this morning the closure of the airports of Nantes, Vatry, La Rochelle, Albert Bray, Saint Nazaire and Brest.
In the Landes department (southwest), three people have died in two separate accidents due to ice, Ici Gascogne radio station indicated, citing sources from the Prefecture (Government delegation).
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The first of these, with two fatalities, occurred this Tuesday morning on the A63 motorway near Saint Geours de Maremne, due to a collision between two Flixbus buses, one of which was carrying around fifty passengers.
The department’s third fatality is the driver of a truck that has run off the road on a two-lane section of the D824 in the municipality of Saint Paul lès Dax.
In Brittany, a young motorcyclist lost his life on Monday afternoon after falling due to slipping on ice on the road in Bréal-sous-Montfort, near the city of Rennes, indicated the prefect of the department, Franck Robine, cited by Ici Armorique.
On the same Monday afternoon, a person died in an accident in Presles en Brie, east of the Paris region, caused by a truck that veered out of its lane while skidding due to ice, invaded the opposite lane and crashed into a van coming head-on. The victim was the driver of the van, according to the Gendarmerie.
Also in the Paris region, shortly after 11:00 p.m. on Monday, an Uber driver died in Perreux sur Marne after his vehicle fell into the Marne river after losing control due to weather conditions, a police source cited by France Info indicated.
The client who was wearing it was able to save his life, after being extracted from the river and hospitalized in a state of hypothermia, but the driver was rescued with cardiac arrest and could not be resuscitated.
A total of 26 departments in the northwest of France, including all of the regions of Brittany, Normandy and Ile de France, but also other neighboring departments, have been on orange alert for snow and cold until mid-morning this Tuesday, due to the passage of a front that on Monday left up to 30 centimeters of snow in the department of Charente Maritime.
The capital of the department, La Rochelle, was practically paralyzed and there, as in many other departments this Tuesday, school transport has been suspended.
The Minister of Transport, Michel Tabarot, pointed out in statements to the BFMTV channel this Tuesday that this episode of snow “has been a bit underestimated” by Météo France because in the end “it has been more important than what was announced”.
Your department has indicated that this morning there were still 300 kilometers of national roads with difficult circulation, and many more on departmental roads.
In the area affected by the snowstorm in the northwest of France, temperatures on Tuesday morning have dropped to 13 degrees below zero (-2 degrees in Paris) and Météo France anticipates a new disturbance with more snowfall from Tuesday night to Wednesday, although with rising temperatures, but they will remain far below the seasonal average.
Starting Friday, a new air mass will enter from the Atlantic and take away the intense cold of these days.
