[6] Surveillance cameras were installed in 1978. I looked again at the citation for the FIM medal. douard Balladur, former president of the French company operating the tunnel (from 1968 to 1980), and later Prime Minister of France, underwent a witness examination. Mont Blanc Tunnel | Description, History, Construction, Fire, & Facts The police deposed hundreds of witnesses and experts, studied all the security logs and video, and analyzed thousands of photos and other pieces of forensic evidence. "Stay safe in road tunnels" in Europe and UK | Croner-i It was initiated by a heavy goods vehicle which stopped near the middle of the tunnel and immediately burst into flames. Pedestrians can cross the tunnel by bus; bicycles can also be carried through the tunnel with a reservation. Initially, there was a lot of conjecture, and uneasiness, about how a fire of that size could become so deadly and produce so much damage, Mr. Connell said. Berthier talked to me about the first Memorial Spadino biker gathering. In Italy, he says, We have a disaster or a deadly happening involving several people every week. But the one thing everyone agreed on was that Spadino loved motorcycles. Large-scale generation and characterisation of fire effluents. [3] Authorities compounded the chimney effect by pumping in further fresh air from the Italian side, escalating the fire whist trapping toxic fumes inside. The tunnel, linking Italy and France, was . The damage to the tunnel was so severe that it took almost three . In 1953, France and Italy agreed to jointly build and operate a motor-vehicle tunnel between Chamonix-Mont Blanc in France and Courmayeur in Italy. The Mont Blanc Tunnel was originally managed by the two building companies. Mr. Connell served as chairman of the associations technical committee on tunnel safety from 2005 until 2015. Safely tunneling the Mont Blanc - DW - 07/17/2015 Pierlucio Tinazzi, the biker nicknamed Spadino. It was immediately obvious, as I began to read, that Spadino couldnt have saved anyone. an Italian security guard who perished while rescuing survivors of the 1999 Mont Blanc tunnel fire. The US magazine, ran an abridged version the next year. [1] Tinazzi was in radio contact with the Italian side for over an hour before succumbing to the intense heat, which caused his motorcycle to melt into the pavement. We learned from Mont Blanc that people dont die from the fire they die from the fumes and smoke, Mr. Hodgkins said. Gilbert Degrave, the driver of the truck, received a four-month suspended sentence. The second, Into the Flames Fire Underground (aired 2006), revisited the circumstances and showed how new technology in the form of a new type of fire extinguisher could have reduced the scale of the disaster and enabled the fire service to reach and remain in the vicinity to fight the fire. [1] [2] The truck came through the tollbooth at 10:46 CET. Emergency shelter No. THE 2001 GOTTHARD ROAD TUNNEL FIRE With its single tube of 17 km in length, roughly 7 million vehicles per year and an average of 4,000 trucks each working day, the Gotthard road tunnel is undoubtedly overstressed. But interest in the story really took off in April 2006 when it appeared in the UK monthly Bike. [1] Drilling began in 1959 and was completed in 1962; the tunnel was opened to traffic on 19 July 1965. In March 1999 a two-day fire killed 39 people and caused extensive damage to the tunnel, forcing it to close. While the legend of the biker was exaggerated, the horror of the fire there 20 years ago and its impact on tunnel safety cannot be overstated.CreditSamuel Zeller for The New York Times. Hence a systematic analysis of less severe, but more frequent incidents (collisions and fires) may provide a more representative picutre of real tunnel incidents. Balladur claimed that the catastrophe could be attributed to the fact the tunnel had been divided into two sections operated by two companies (one in France, the other in Italy), which failed to coordinate the situation. + Follow. It would have been the story that led my obituary. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies.