LENT, France, Relish Wire,— A regional coach carrying students and other passengers crashed near Lent in eastern France on Friday, killing a minor and a young adult and injuring 16 people, authorities said.
The bus, operated by Philibert Transports, on regional line A32, was travelling from Lyon to Bourg-en-Bresse. It had left Lyon at about 5:35 a.m. and crashed at about 7:30 a.m. on the D22 near Lent, leaving the road and striking a tree in a ditch.
Accident de car dans l'Ain: l'image de l'avant du véhicule
— BFM (@BFMTV) November 6, 2026
➡️ Crédit: La Voix de l’Ain pic.twitter.com/ynwZVYWVYv
The Bourg-en-Bresse prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into road manslaughter and aggravated road injuries case, which is being handled by the Lyon gendarmerie’s research section.
Authorities said the coach driver was taken to hospital and had not yet been questioned. Investigators had not established why the coach left the road.
There were 43 people aboard, including 15 minors. Of the 16 injured, three are now reported by authorities to be seriously injured and 13 had less serious injuries,
The passengers included students travelling to school, but the coach was a regular interurban service, not a dedicated school bus.
More than 102 firefighters and 58 emergency vehicles responded to the scene, and 50 gendarmes, four aerial resources and eight ground-based SMUR medical units, the prefecture said.
🔴 Accident de car dans l'Ain : "C'est un drame absolu qui frappe notre commune", Yves Cristin, maire de Lent pic.twitter.com/724oO3FEbr
— LCI (@LCI) November 6, 2026
The prefect activated the departmental operations centre to coordinate the operation and went to the scene.
Yves Cristin, the mayor of Lent, has opened the village hall to help those affected, with one area for the passengers involved in the crash , and separate area for their families, so they could wait, get information and be looked after.
Trained staff worked tirelessly on the scene to offer psychological support to people in shock. Civil-protection and victim-support groups were also called in to help.
A national crisis line was opened for anyone affected: *09 70 80 90 40*.
France has seen deadly coach accidents involving children and young people in the past, and there is a worse recorded case which was at Beaune in Côte-d’Or on 31 July 1982, when two holiday coaches carrying children to summer camps were involved in a multi-vehicle collision on the A6 and caught fire. 53 people died, with 44 of the total being children.
On 2 June 2008 at Allinges in Haute-Savoie, a school coach was hit by a TER train at a level crossing, killing 7 children.
More recent ones have kept the issue in public debate and scrutiny.
Near Rochefort in 2016, a school coach collision killed 6 adolescents, with another at Châteaudun in Eure-et-Loir in January last year, involving a school coach, that incident killed a 15-year-old; the driver later tested positive for cannabis, which led to broader controls on school-transport drivers.
Separately in Sarthe in June last year, a coach carrying Ukrainian students on an exchange crashed, killing 4 adults and injuring dozens.
After Friday’s accident the D22 was closed between Péronnas and Lent, with motorists directed to diversions set up by the departmental council, and the public was asked to avoid the area. Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot was expected at the scene in late morning. Education Minister Édouard Geffray also expressed support for the pupils and their families.
