Verdict due in Mont Blanc disaster trial
A long-awaited verdict in the trial of 16 defendants over the 1999 Mont Blanc tunnel fire was expected today, more than six years after the blaze incinerated trucks and cars, killing 39 people.
A total of 12 individual defendants face up to three years in prison if convicted of manslaughter for the March 24, 1999 fire inside the Alpine passage, and four companies could face fines and other sanctions.
The fire is believed to have started in a Volvo truck carrying flour and margarine and then quickly spread, trapping cars and trucks in the tunnel. The blaze burned for two days while firefighters tried to reach victims in the tunnel under Western Europe’s highest peak.
The three-month trial followed a four-and-a-half-year investigation. Defendants faced questions about a shortage of security equipment, the lack of security drills before the fire and a mishap with the ventilation system that appeared to fan the fire rather than put it out.
State prosecutor Vincent Le Pannerer called for suspended prison sentences for defendants, and he asked the court to throw out charges against Swedish truck maker Volvo. Investigators have said they found defects in Volvo FH12 trucks - the model involved in the fire – but the prosecutor said that experts who took the stand cast substantial doubt on whether the company could be held responsible.
The prosecutor sought a three-year suspended prison term and a €12,000 fine - the harshest penalty he requested – for Gerard Roncoli, the head of security for the tunnel operator on the French side.
A two-year suspended sentence and €30,400 fine was requested for Remy Chardon, who heads French tunnel operator ATMB, Autoroute et Tunnel de Mont Blanc.
Both ATMB and the Italian tunnel operator, SITMB, could face €69,000 fines if the court adheres to the prosecutor’s request.
An investigating judge reported that when tunnel operators learned of the blaze, they quickly turned on stoplights at the entrance to the Alpine passage but waited about nine minutes before activating tunnel warning lights. Vehicles already inside advanced unknowingly toward the burning truck.
Shortly after the incident, Belgian truck driver Gilbert Degrave said he had been alerted to the fire as oncoming vehicles flashed their headlights about halfway through the tunnel. After he stopped and checked underneath the truck, it exploded and became “a ball of fire,” he had said.
Le Pannerer sought a six-month suspended sentence for Degrave, saying he was “only a link in the chain of responsibilities that led to the catastrophe”.
Investigators said the truck caught fire after an external heat source - possibly a cigarette – came in contact with the truck’s air filter.
About 20 articulated lorries and 11 cars were destroyed. French investigators said a two-way ventilation duct apparently left in the wrong position by Italian authorities may have fed the fire, blowing cold air into the tunnel instead of sucking smoke out.
The 7.4-mile passage, which was inaugurated by President Charles de Gaulle in 1965, was closed for more than three years to be rebuilt and fitted with safety improvements.
