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Under the Mont Blancmountain range is a 11,6 km(around 7.2 miles) long road tunnel, connecting Francewith Italy. The data base used for the calculations are enclosed in Appendix 3 (collisions) and Appendix 4 (fires) respectively. I traveled to Val dAosta on my own dime to write a story that I eventually came to call Searching for Spadino.. Since then, the combined traffic volume of the former has remained roughly constant. Unfortunately, he failed to return from his final visit into the tunnel and himself became a victim of the tragic inferno. Appendix 5 of the technical report 2016 R35 Experience with Significant Incidents in Road Tunnels provides a survey of 32 randomly selected real tunnel incidents, including a short description as well as important conclusions and improvements that could be identified for specific types of incidents or tunnel systems. Many difficulties, including an avalanche that swept the Italian camp in which three workers were killed and more than 30 injured, were overcome during its construction, and, when the tunnel opened in 1965, it was the longest vehicular tunnel in the world. He could have turned back, but he didnt. When it stopped halfway through the tunnel, it violently combusted. The opening was successful, with an axis variation of less than 13 centimetres (5 inches). Twenty years ago Sunday, a fire deep inside an Alpine tunnel killed 39 people and turned a motorcycle-riding security guard who worked there into a hero. Nothing in the official record suggests his motivation. [2] Some victims were able to escape to the fire cubicles. Mr. Connell served as chairman of the associations technical committee on tunnel safety from 2005 until 2015. Theyd already made several annual pilgrimages to the tunnel in his honor. The memorial on the French side honoring the 39 people who died in the tunnel blaze. Pierlucio had turned down a promotion to. The tunnel diverts traffic that used to crawl through downtown. 35 die, 1 Briton missing in Mont Blanc tunnel fire For each and every one, a non-profit association or event is established. He was asked about the security measures that he ordered, or did not order, to be carried out. 20 another refuge and closed the fire door, which guaranteed safety from a fire for four hours. I fell asleep that night increasingly certain that I had gotten Searching for Spadino wrong, but lacking real evidence. When built, it was the worlds longest road tunnel, linking the French and Italian highway systems and shortening truck routes between Italys industrial north and other parts of Europe. The told and retold story that, before finding Lebras, Spadino had exited to safety and returned over and over, rescuing 10 other people had been publicly debunked by the French judicial police in 2005. It was some time before investigators released a final, accurate account of the disaster at the Mont Blanc Tunnel: The biker, who was known by his nickname, Spadino, an Italian riff on his skinny frame, had not saved anyone. 38 road users and a fireman lost their lives in the . When I pressed him, he fell silent for a moment before saying, My advice is, dont become preoccupied with some accounting of lives saved versus lives lost.. what happens if you snitch on the cartel. PDF Fire Safety in Tunnels - The Concrete Initiative Mont Blanc Tunnel fire - Wikipedia At each 300 m, there are rest areas for vehicles with 3.15m width by 30m long located on the alternative side of the roadways . Remy Chardon, former president of the French company operating the tunnel, was convicted and received a two-year suspended jail term; he was also fined approximately. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. March 27, 1999 5:00am. He appeared to be trying to catch up to the truck that sparked the catastrophe, witnesses said. (Reuters) Despite the wide coverage it received, the news last week that 11 people had died in two separate incidents just days apart on. A year after the fire, thousands of bikers gathered at the Italian portal to commemorate him. The original fire doors on the cubicles were rated to survive for two hours. . A French engineer, Jean-Marc Berthier, led development of a unified safety protocol for the Franco-Italian venture, and served as the tunnels administrator for the next few years. For the first time, I began to worry. Direction Italy - France. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Searching for Spadino. That always made my day. That tunnel blaze killed 39 people. [1] [2] The truck came through the tollbooth at 10:46 CET. Other motorists were overcome by fumes as they tried to run to safety. Eleven bodies had been accounted for by yesterday afternoon but now up to 30 more people are feared missing. The sentence was upheld on appeal. The Italian government presented his family with the Medaglia doro al valor civile, a heavy, beautiful medal that is one of the countrys highest honors for civilian bravery. Pierlucio Tinazzi - Wikipedia With a length of 11.6km, the Mont Blanc Tunnel is constructed from one tube through which the traffic flows in both directions. It reads in part: The motorcyclist Pierlucio Tinazzi entered the smoke filled tunnel from the Italian side a number of times and successfully brought out on his motorcycle many motorists whose vehicles had been trapped inside the tunnel. The heat was so intense and the fumes so thick that the first group of Italian firefighters who tried to approach the inferno were forced to retreat through the ventilation shafts. The devastating fire led many countries to issue revised safety standards for tunnel design and engineering, including sprinkler systems, emergency response plans, and two-way ventilation systems that can quickly withdraw suffocating smoke. Others blamed a mechanical or electrical fault, or poor maintenance of the truck's engine. On 24th March, 1999, the Mont Blanc Tunnel fire occurred, with Tinazzi riding into the tunnel in an attempt to save lives on the French side. The report revealed that Tinazzi was outside the tunnel, at the French portal, when the Belgian truck entered; Id been right about that much. The next morning, digging deeper, I uncovered a 97-page, minute-by-minute account of the fire, produced by, Le Service Rgional de Police Judiciaire de Lyon. The Italian side of the Mont Blanc Tunnel. He appeared to be in his 50s at the time of the fire, so its not certain hes still alive. The Mont Blanc Tunnel Disaster: Lessons Learned | Harvard Business Maybe like Italian motorcycle magazines, the newspapers quietly started telling the truth about him, without ever admitting the initial error. Mont Blanc Tunnel fire (partially found CCTV footage of road tunnel Mont Blanc looming over Lake Leman, in the Swiss Alps. It reduces the route from France to Turin by 50 kilometres (30 miles) and to Milan by 100km (60mi). It connects the highway systems of France and Italy, and cuts an hour off transport times between Italys industrial north and the rich markets beyond the Alps. [1] However, in 2019, a writer researching the story found the full description of the events in French police reports: A motorcycle security guard, Patrick Devouassoux, who survived the fire, did indeed save several people while driving a Renault Express minivan. FIREFIGHTER HISTORY 3/24 - Firefighter Close Calls This phase is the terminal phase of victims as a result of the fire. In 2010, the average traffic volume was 4,945 vehicles per day, or around 1.80 million vehicles per year. Earlier reports also present a statistical census of breakdowns, collisions and fires in selected tunnels, as well as the lessons to be drawn from such events for the geometric design of the tunnel, the design of the safety equipment and the operating guidelines: Send a review,a comment or a suggestionto the manual authors! On 27 July 2005, thirteen defendants were found guilty, and received sentences ranging from fines to suspended prison sentences to six months in jail: A memorial plaque on the French side of the tunnel; pictured in 2010, remembering those who were killed in the fire. But I never really dug back into it. [13] In 2016, the one-way ticket for a car cost 43.50 (44.20 on the Italian side). Anyone can read what you share. By 11:11, more Italian firefighters had come to tackle the fire. But in recent weeks I have realized, with a creeping feeling of unease, that it was wrong. . A cargo truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire while passing through the tunnel and when the driver stopped . Both French and Italian firefighters criticised the ventilation system, unchanged since the tunnel was built and attacked in an official report last year. It was immediately obvious, as I began to read, that Spadino couldnt have saved anyone. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. I suppose I would sympathize with a local reporter who on deadline, in the chaos of those first days conflated events from both ends of the tunnel. He closed the fire door and waited. The idea of building a tunnel underneath the Mont Blanc to avoid the need for lengthy circumnavigation dates back to the nineteenth century during the heyday of the railway. Moments later, the fire melted the wiring for the lights, plunging the tunnel into darkness. The agreement between France and Italy on building a tunnel was signed in 1949. They warned in a report that the ventilation system would be hopelessly inadequate if a serious accident happened far from a tunnel mouth. THE 2001 GOTTHARD ROAD TUNNEL FIRE - Transportation Research Board Their commanding officer died at a nearby hospital. But he died trying to do so, and local bikers still gather at the tunnel mouth once a year to honor him. The death toll from a fire which trapped trucks and cars in the Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy is 35, the operator for the Italian side of the tunnel said last . Or, he might simply have chosen that moment to make a routine return trip to Italy. Pierlucio Tinazzi was employed as a security guard to patrol the tunnel by motorcycle to ensure a steady flow of traffic. It has cross-passages every 450 feet so that, in a fire, people can escape through the other tunnel. French police announced last night that as many as 40 trucks . In death, hed become an unofficial patron saint of Italian bikers. In the aftermath, major changes were made to the tunnel to improve its safety. A trial has opened in France to establish responsibility for a fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel which killed 39 people almost six years ago. Mont Blanc Tunnel, France, Italy, and Switzerland - Building the World Tunnel du Mont Blanc - Tempratures atteintes dans la chausse et comportement au feu de la chausse, Document A Deadly Blaze in the Alps Made a Biker a Hero and Tunnels Safer for