2023-08-07 17:59:00
“J’ I was alerted during the night that another tragedy had taken place at the Marquain interchange involving a vehicle with only one deceased person on board. I have no more words to describe all these dramas. I send my sincere condolences to the family of the victim.”
This “post”, the mayor of Tournai posted it early in the morning of Monday, on his Facebook page. Paul-Olivier Delannois evokes here an accident which occurred a few hours earlier, Sunday a little before 11 p.m., in the interchange of the E403/E42 motorways, near Marquain towards the Tournai-Ouest exit. A vehicle traveling in the Mouscron-Tournai direction swerved there before hitting the concrete safety rail and ended its course in the trees below. Alone on board, the driver, a resident of Chercq aged between 40 and 50, who was ejected from the vehicle, died at the scene, before the arrival of the emergency services.
A dramatic news item that cruelly echoes the accident that occurred in the same place on July 20 and which cost the lives of 5 members of a Tournai family.
Worrying statistics
Without presuming the results of the investigations in progress (with the aim of determining the causes of these various accidents) and without of course excluding the fact that unsuitable speed might also have played a role in these dramas, we cannot nor conceal the fact that the configuration of this interchange undeniably constitutes a risk factor that the drivers required to use it would gladly do without.
Our purpose, in the video that accompanies this article, is certainly not to favor one or the other hypothesis concerning the causes of these accidents. The point here is simply to draw attention to the need to scrupulously respect the signs posted on the site, and in particular the speed limits. Because, even at reasonable speed, the presence of a concrete guardrail in the exit curve is surprising. If this video can encourage everyone to be extra vigilant in this place and perhaps avoid new tragedies, then it will have fulfilled its mission…
When we know that in the space of 5 years, according to the statistics of the Vias Institute (formerly BRSI), there have been no less than 20 accidents – including three fatalities at this location – there is enough ask questions. This, not to mention the less dramatic swerves that did not give rise to a finding.
It is no coincidence that the mayor of Tournai, immediately following the accident of July 20, submitted a request to the provincial road safety unit for a point regarding this interchange to be brought to order. of the day of a future meeting, so that the phenomenon is studied seriously.
The new dramatic accident this Sunday only reinforces the need to address this problem.
Quickly.
View the photo from a pdf:
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