While the circumstances of Friday’s crash are still unclear, the terrible accident comes as the French government struggles to tackle a worrying leap in the number of fatal road accidents.
Investigators will spend the next days and weeks trying to determine the exact cause of the head-on collision between the bus carrying senior citizens and the truck.
But while they go about their work, the French government’s much-publicized, often controversial attempts to cut roads deaths will once again come under the microscope.
President François Hollande has already spoken of looking at whether the laws around coach travel should be tightened.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls and his Minister of Interior Bernard Cazeneuve have repeatedly vowed to make cutting road deaths a top priority for the government.
But their efforts do not appear to be paying off.
Only last month Valls admitted the average speed of drivers in France was on the increase and that drivers were becoming less vigilant. 2014 was the deadliest year on French roads in 12 years with 3,384 deaths. In July alone the rate of fatalities saw a 19.2 percent rise.
