It’s been two weeks since the fiery car crash that tragically claimed three lives in early April, and very few details have been revealed about the victims and circumstances surrounding the accident.
It was the accident that shook not only Monaco, but the entire region: three lives, all taken in a single car accident, the likes of which have never been seen in Monaco before.
Authorities have been investigating the accident that occurred at around 4.15am on Saturday 1st April in the Louis II Tunnel to try and piece together the circumstances of the tragedy.
Public Prosecutor Morgan Raymond this week gave Monaco-Matin an update on that investigation.
“Nothing as it stands justifies the opening of a judicial investigation and the referral to an investigating judge,” he told Monaco-Matin.
Autopsies that were performed on Wednesday 5th April confirmed the victims’ identities, but they have still not been made public.
What is known is that all three were males aged in their 30s; one was French and the other two Swiss. Two of the victims worked in the banking sector in Monaco. One lived in Monaco, one in a nearby French region and one in Switzerland.
The hours before the tragic accident
According to Monaco-Matin, the men spent Friday evening at an establishment in Monaco and attempted to enter another one in the early hours of Saturday morning, but were turned away.
It is then that they are believed to have gotten into the Audi Q3 and driven through the Louis II Tunnel, in the direction of Port Hercule, where the accident occurred.
The public prosecutor is still reluctant to speculate on whether alcohol or drugs were a contributing factor in the accident, telling the local paper, “The investigators are still awaiting the results of the toxicological analyses of the samples taken during the autopsies, which will make it possible to confirm or invalidate certain working hypotheses of the investigators on the causes of the accident. These elements will be supplemented by technical expertise carried out on the accident vehicle. Given the progress of the investigation of the manslaughter charge, no hypothesis is excluded for the time being on the circumstances of the accident.”
Investigators were able to view private surveillance video in the tunnel to determine the circumstance of how the Audi Q3 hit the wall near the Auditorium Rainier III before bursting into flames, trapping its occupants inside the vehicle.
Excessive speed was considered the main cause of the accident early in the investigation.
“It seems in the current state of the investigations that excessive speed is the cause, undoubtedly not exclusive, of the accident,” the public prosecutor told the newspaper in the days following the accident.
The investigation continues.
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