An intercity bus carrying 43 people, including 15 minors, went off the road and into a tree in Lent, a small municipality in the Ain department in eastern France. According to authorities, a 7-year-old girl and an 18-year-old boy died in the accident and 23 other people were injured, three of them seriously. An investigation is underway to determine why the vehicle left a "well-maintained" road.
First modification: 06/11/2026 - 19:46
At least two young people died and another 23 people were injured in a bus accident near the town of Lent, in the Ain department, in eastern France and close to the border with Switzerland.
According to the local prefecture, the accident occurred around 7:30 in the morning on the D22 departmental road and involved a bus from an intercity transport line that had left Lyon two hours earlier bound for the city of Bourg-en-Bresse.
In total, the prosecutor's office reported, the vehicle, hired by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, was transporting 43 people, including 15 minors, mostly primary and secondary school students. The deceased were a 7-year-old girl and an 18-year-old boy, while among the injured there are three "in critical condition."
The mayor of Lent – a municipality of 1,200 inhabitants located about 50 kilometers north of Lyon –, Yves Cristin, indicated that the bus "went off the road and collided with a tree in the ditch."
After arriving at the scene "minutes after the accident," Cristin indicated that he found people "in a state of shock."
"The side of the bus had been torn off and, obviously, the people who were on that side must have suffered serious injuries," he explained.
French broadcaster BFMTV showed an image of a blue and white bus leaning in what appeared to be a roadside ditch, while a group of people stood outside the vehicle.
102 firefighters, 50 gendarmes, four helicopters and several drones were mobilized to assist, according to the local prefecture, which activated the "departmental operational center" to coordinate the work of all the agents involved in managing the crisis.
The commune of Lent, for its part, enabled its community center to provide care and shelter to the victims, while the Avema-France Victimes 01 association mobilized to the scene to provide support to those affected and their loved ones.
According to reports, there are people "in a state of shock, shaken" by the tragedy, who are being treated in the municipal assembly hall, where a psychological support team has been set up.
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An accident, for now, "without concrete explanation"
Confusion marked the initial reaction to the accident, which occurred on a road in good condition and under relatively normal weather conditions.
The prosecution opened an investigation under the initial heading of homicide in a traffic accident and noted that the young driver, who suffered injuries and was hospitalized, "has not yet been able to be questioned."
Present at the scene, the Minister of Transport, Philippe Tabarot, explained that the driver had to be released from the damaged vehicle and that the man tested negative in the first tests to detect drugs or alcohol.
"We will have to wait some time to ask the necessary questions and collect statements from eyewitnesses. Therefore, this will require some time (...) I have no doubt that we will know very quickly," Tabarot stressed.
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Along the same lines, the president of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region, Fabrice Pannekoucke, reinforced that "at this time, no concrete explanation can be offered" and clarified that the regional line was operated by an external provider.
Regarding the conditions at the scene of the accident, Cristin added that "there was some fog and the road was wet" and stressed that the road did not present any major difficulties, beyond "a slight curve", so he insisted that "we do not know what could have happened."
The mayor of Lent assured, however, that this road is "quite prone" to accidents, usually due to excessive speed, an option that he ruled out, in principle, for this case.
"At first glance, it does not seem that this was the cause. For me, what happened is quite inexplicable. In that area, all the accidents we have had have been due to crossing continuous white lines or excessive speed," he stressed.
A similar assessment was made by Jean-François Débat, mayor of Bourg-en-Bresse, who described the route – with heavy morning traffic of workers and students – as "wide", "well maintained" and with "a bank and a slight curve to the right" at the point of the crash.
The French Government admits "a failure" due to the accident
Through his X account, President Emmanuel Macron regretted the "terrible car accident in the Ain". "My thoughts are with the victims, the injured and their families. The Nation is at their side. Recognition of the mobilized rescue teams," he wrote.
In a similar vein, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu described what happened as "tragic", expressed his support "for all the people affected by this tragedy" and also thanked "the firefighters, the medical teams and the law enforcement forces mobilized at the scene to help the victims."
As the main representative of the French Government at the site of the accident, Minister Tabarot admitted that this represents "a failure."
"We try to resort to all modern means so that an accident like today's does not happen again. Unfortunately, this morning it happened, for which I apologize collectively (...) to the families of the victims, to the parents of the injured and to the injured themselves," acknowledged the minister.
In any case, Tabarot added that "we will not give up on making coach or bus transportation even safer in our country, whether it is school or not."
For his part, from an institute in the Paris region, the Minister of Education, Édouard Geffray, assured that his thoughts are "with these students and their families." "For us, it is always a hard blow when our students, our children, suffer accidents of this nature," he said.
Accidents on public transport in France are relatively rare. One of the most recent occurred in January, when a 15-year-old student was killed and 20 students were injured when a school bus overturned near Châteaudun, in central France. On that occasion the driver tested positive for cannabis.
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Previously, in December 2017, a collision between a school vehicle and a train in Millas (in the Pyrénées-Orientales) caused the death of six students and injured 17 others. The bus driver was sentenced on appeal in 2025 to five years in prison, two of them effective compliance under control by electronic bracelet.
It should be remembered that the worst road accident in France occurred in August 1982, when a pileup on a highway sparked fires in several vehicles, including a coach transporting children to a summer camp. The tragedy claimed the lives of 53 people, of which 46 were children.
With AFP, EFE, AP and Reuters
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