British woman, 40, among several dead in horror France motorway crash
A
mother-of-10 from London has been named as one of three victims in a horror crash in northern France[1].
Miriam Posen, 49 and from Stamford Hill, was travelling with her family when tragedy struck on the A26 motorway[2], south of Lens, on Sunday evening.
Ms Posen was travelling with family members, all of whom are members of an Orthodox Jewish community in the UK.
Two of Ms Posen’s daughters and their father were seriously hurt, and are all in hospital.
Prosecutors in nearby Arras have opened an enquiry into the accident.
“Three people are dead and dozens injured, including many children,” said a spokesman for local emergency services[3].
“A van with a British family of seven people on board was one of the three vehicles involved in the crash.”
The source said that some survivors remained in a ‘life-threatening condition” in intensive care on Monday morning.
The accident took place on Sunday, shortly after 6pm, on a section of the motorway where road works were taking place, between the towns of Neuville-Saint-Vaast and Thélus.
A second vehicle contained four people, a 75-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man, who also died.
The other two passengers in this car were a 14-year-old boy and a 79-year-old man who were in a critical condition.
The third vehicle involved was a car with four passengers, including three children, aged between six and 33.
The section of the A26 motorway was closed off until late into the night, as six emergency medical teams attended the scene.
Roughly 60 firefighters were also scrambled to the crash site, to try to rescue the victims.
It happened at the height of the holiday season, when thousands of British drivers make their way across the Channel.