Provisional detention for bus driver involved in fatal crash in French Pyrenees

The driver of the bus that left L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and crashed at the Porté-Puymorens ski resort in France last week, killing two people and injuring 30, has been ordered into provisional detention.  

The Marseille prosecutor's office ordered the detention after discovering that the driver tested positive for cocaine.  

Investigators also found that the bus's tachograph - a device that records speed and driving time - had been deactivated and that the vehicle had not undergone its mandatory technical inspection.  

The 50-year-old Spanish driver now faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and causing injury, aggravated by safety violations, drug use and endangering human life.  

The bus was carrying 49 passengers, including several minors. Thirty-two passengers were hospitalized in Catalonia, while nine were taken to hospitals in France, six of whom remain hospitalized. Most of the passengers were of Spanish and Colombian nationality.