Nine on trial over fatal French cable-car accident

GAP, France, Nov 12 (AFP) - A manslaughter trial opened in a court in southeastern France Wednesday to examine a July 1999 cable-car accident in the Alps that left 20 people dead.

Nine people stand accused of involuntary homicide over the fatal accident in Pic de Bure, in the French Alps.

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The judge in the Gap court said the accused, "through clumsiness, recklessness, negligence or dereliction of safety obligations, committed a clear error that exposed others to danger ... a danger you could not ignore."

The privately-owned cable car was carrying technicians and workers from France's National Centre for Scientific Research when it started slipping backwards before breaking free and plummeting 80 metres (260 feet).

A report by experts blamed the accident on the cabin's absence of brakes, which had been deactivated in 1984 and removed in 1986.

The report also criticised the long-running problems besetting the use of the cable car, including the frequent overloading of the cabin, and the lack of maintenance, control and surveillance, and notably safety systems.

The trial will resume on Thursday.

jag/lp/wdb

France-accident-cablecar-justice

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