French avalanche deaths: teacher to be questioned in manslaughter inquiry

questioned in manslaughter inquiry
Prosecutor to investigate why group of children and teacher were on black-rated ski run closed for safety reasons amid avalanche warnings

     
   Didier Bobilier, director of Les Deux Alpes ski resort, answers journalists’ questions on Thursday, a day after an avalanche swept away skiers


The teacher in charge of a group of French schoolchildren who were hit by an avalanche on a closed ski run in the French Alps has been placed in police custody and will be questioned over manslaughter.

Two schoolchildren aged 14 and 16 were killed by the vast snow-slide that struck while they were on a difficult black-rated ski run that had been closed for safety reasons amid avalanche warnings. The teacher, who was seriously injured in Wednesday’s accident, is in hospital in nearby Grenoble but will be questioned by police as part of an inquiry for manslaughter. A Ukrainian skier not linked to the group also died.

“We have to interview the hospitalised teacher as soon as we can,” the Grenoble prosecutor Jean-Yves Coquillat said earlier today. “The question is, why were they skiing on a closed piste?”

The prosecutor has called for anyone present on the slopes to come forward. He said a Romanian had already come forward to say that a group of 10 to 15 people had been skiing above the school group, cutting across the snow. The Romanian said that shortly afterwards, he heard a noise like an explosion and the avalanche began.

The teacher’s role and the exact order of events remains to be determined. One French official said that the school students may have skied ahead of their teacher.

At least two other members of the school group were found in a state of cardiac arrest and were also transferred to the hospital in Grenoble.

The avalanche happened just before 4pm in Les Deux Alpes in Isère, about 30 miles (50km) from the Italian border. A large sheet of snow broke off above a black-rated run that had been closed following several days of heavy snowfall.


A spokesman from the Isère prefect’s office told France Info radio that the school group should “probably not” have been on the closed piste. He said an investigation would have to take place into whether warning signs had been correctly in place. There had been an avalanche warning in the surrounding area after heavy snowfall.

The young skiers were from the Lycée Saint-Exupéry, a large high school in the centre of Lyon where sports staff regularly run day trips to the ski slopes on Wednesdays. The prefect of Isère, Jean-Paul Bonnetain, told AFP: “It appears that everyone from the school trip has been found but the searches are continuing to be sure that there were no other victims outside the school group.”

Dominique Létaing, head of the national agency for the study of snow and avalanches, told Le Monde that what stood out was the number of people hit “when we are constantly repeating that skiers must go one by one when there is an unstable layer of snow”. He said the avalanche risk was very high – at a level 3 out of 5. “That ski run had not been opened this season because there had been too little snow. It was not skiable.”



The radio station France Bleu said a large amount of unstable snow had fallen on the mountainside at an altitude of 2,500 metres. Local media reported that hundreds of tonnes of snow had slid down the mountain during the avalanche. The local paper, the Dauphine Libéré, said there had been a known avalanche risk in the area.

About 100 rescuers including mountain teams, search dogs and helicopters with heat cameras designed to seek out survivors were mobilised as night fell. The search mission was said to be complex.

The French president, François Hollande, gave his “sincere condolences” to the families of the victims and said the nation stood “in solidarity” with them. The prime minister, Manuel Valls, tweeted his “great sadness”, saying France’s thoughts were with the victims. The education minister will travel to Lyon to support the school and the families.

Since the start of January, four people have been killed in avalanches in France – two Lithuanians, a Spaniard and a Czech skier.

In September, seven people were killed by an avalanche in the Massif des Ecrins, one of the country’s worst snowslides in a decade. The avalanche struck three groups of roped climbers on an easily accessible 4,000-metre (13,000ft) mountain.
In January last year, six members of the French Alpine Club aged between 50 and 70 were killed in an avalanche in the Hautes-Alpes

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/14/avalanche-deaths-france-judicial-inquiry-pupils-closed-piste


The parents must be in a terrible state.

Shit happens, clearly they must have all known it was closed for a reason and still went up there, they only have themselves to blame

Children die and didge says, shit happens.  Nice, but typical.

Did they go up willingly?

Yes

Why are you excusing stupidity?

Anyway considering you actually try to defend terrorists murdering Israelis or attempting as you have claiming armed ressistance under occupation, of which the occupation is legal based on the Oslo accords signed by the PLO. Yhave no case or are in a psoition to make any moral judgement on anything.

You need help - quickly.   Your descent into madness is accelerating.

sassy wrote:You need help - quickly.   Your descent into madness is accelerating.

Again making unfounded disgusting accusatiions, when we have seen your poor your ability is to understand medical problems
Again many peoploe suffer with actual mental health problems or even insanity and you think it is something you can use in the most infantile way to get at people

It just proves how vile and evil a person you really are.

Do you go up to people with mental health problems and say they are mad?

Have you read your own posts?  The vileness comes from you, your madness stops you recognising that fact.

sassy wrote:Have you read your own posts?  The vileness comes from you, your madness stops you recognising that fact.

Again you have no ability to understand anything medical and again make an unfounded accusation

They  took a risk here and stupidly did so to their own cost.
My thoughts go to their families, but you want me to have sympathy for stupidity?
That is not madness but common sense and if more people said so, then maybe more people would think twice before they act with such incompetance.

Here you go Didge, insert you name and stick it on your wall, it will make you feel better.

I have no need for anything Sassy and again it shows how immature you are, that again you deflect because you simply have no answer