A bus that set out to carry children to their classrooms in eastern France instead ended its run off the road and in a ditch, and two people were killed.
The intercity bus crashed Friday morning, Nov. 6, 2026, near the small town of Lent, in the rural Ain department northeast of Lyon, killing a 7-year-old girl and an 18-year-old boy and injuring 16 others, French authorities said.
Three of the injured were in serious condition, according to the Ain prefecture. Emergency crews and law enforcement officers were deployed to the scene, the prefecture said.
A Ditch Northeast of Lyon
Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot, who called the crash a “tragic accident,” traveled to the site. Ain Prefect Louis-Xavier Thirode told BFM that preliminary blood tests on the driver found “no traces of alcohol or drugs.”
The bus, operated by the regional authority, was carrying about 15 students along with other passengers, including children on their way to middle and high schools in the area.
The bus veered off the road, struck trees and came to rest in a ditch. Lent Mayor Yves Cristin said the road was a little wet but there was no fog, and that he did not understand why the bus left the road. President Emmanuel Macron offered his condolences and thanked emergency crews.
When a British School Coach Tipped Over
France has seen a busload of teenagers end up in a roadside ditch before. On Saturday, July 23, 2016, a coach carrying pupils from Bournside School in Cheltenham, England, tipped over on a motorway near Lons-le-Saunier, in eastern France, not far from the Swiss border.
The coach, driven by two drivers from north Wales, was heading for Italy with 50 people aboard, most of them teenagers aged 14 to 17. It ended on its side in a ditch.
Fifteen people were injured in the 2016 crash. Two seriously hurt pupils were airlifted to hospital, while 13 others with minor injuries were treated at the roadside.
A U.K. Foreign Office spokesman confirmed the 2016 crash and said the department was assisting a group of British nationals involved, working with authorities in France.
The Minister Speaking From Another School
Education Minister Édouard Geffray addressed the crash during a visit to a high school in the Paris region.
“It is always a difficult moment when our students, our children, are victims of an accident like this,” Geffray told reporters. He added that his thoughts, along with those of the government and the entire education community, were with the families.
