Compagnie du Mont Blanc charged over Brevent lift incident

News broke this morning that as the operators of the Brevent lift, Compagnie du Mont Blanc was charged on the 19 December 2008 with involuntary homicide following the accident on the old Brevent bubble car lift last season.

A 32 year old French tourist was killed in the incident on the 1st March 2008, after falling out of one of the bubble cars on the old Brevent lift as the man, allegedly, stood up to urinate out of the window whilst in the lift on the way down from skiing.

Much was made of the incident in the media at the time, but the lift re-opened. Since then, the lift has been replaced, a project which was not linked to the incident.

The BEA-TT, which is the Bureau d'Enquetes Sur Les Accidents de Transports Terrestres, has raised doubts over the resistance of the plastic window on the bubble car and the joints. It has been alleged the bureau found the window was not the original plexiglass-style window and had been replaced with a covering less resistant, combined with questions over the age of the rubber joints sealing the window.

Since receiving this report, the judicial process has asked for further investigation and this has led to the Compagnie du Mont Blanc having to be charged, so that the company has the legal right to access all the files on the case.

Director General of Cie du Mont Blanc commented: "There are no regulations regarding the resistance of windows on these lifts. We still say it was the abnormal stance against the window which lead to the fall."

Source : Dauphine Libere