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Last night at Champtoc^-sur-Loire, near Angers, a car went over the parapet of a bridge over the Paris-Nantes line and was struck by a TGV. The driver was killed, and the train took some 2 km to stop. The passengers were evacuated to another TGV, which took several hours, and one carriage had to be lifted by crane to examine the debris of the car before the track was cleared. 

This line is not custom-built LGV, indeed there is a little station at Champtoc^-sur-Loire. The train was reported travelling at 200 km/hr, so either the line has been uprated or the reporting is not based on line speed. The road (D15) is pretty straight, with a light handrail and an ARMCO barrier in front of it and extending to part of the approach roads. However, there are unprotected parts of the approach, and the barrier has the traditional downward slope at the ends of the bridge. But on the whole the protection of this bridge is not obviously out of date or deficient, so this may not lead to a big panic programme in France.

There is not much information yet on how the car got onto the track, but one picture shows the front skirt of the body left on the bridge behind the ARMCO (http://www.ouest-france.fr/actu/actuDet_-TGV-Paris-Nantes.-Le-train-percute-une-voiture-tombee-d-un-pont-un-mort-_40774-2237775_actu.Htm (http://www.ouest-france.fr/actu/actuDet_-TGV-Paris-Nantes.-Le-train-percute-une-voiture-tombee-d-un-pont-un-mort-_40774-2237775_actu.Htm)). That suggests that the car did go over the parapet, rather than to one side of it. This possibility, of the slope at the end of the barrier forming a ramp, was not one that featured in the review and upgrading process after Great Heck in Britain - at least it is not in the DfT guide on the subject (http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/tal-6-03/the-guidance-booklet.pdf (http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/tal-6-03/the-guidance-booklet.pdf)). ("Ramped end terminals" have generally gone out of favour, and or not now allowed by DtT on roads above 50 mi/hr.)

This is an unrelated accident, this time at a level crossing, but not far away. Posted mainly so as to bring out a couple of points that may be relevant to us.

At 20:15 last night (15/10/13) a TGV struck a lorry that was immobile on level crossing 129 near Sill^-le-Guillaume. There were only slight injuries to the train driver and one passenger.

This is on the line from Le Mans to Laval on the way to Rennes, St Brieuc (this train's destination) and Quimper. This is also a "classic" line, and it has a lot of level crossings on this stretch (40 in less than 80 km, and more in some parts). Crossing 129 is an ordinary rural AHB crossing, so the key point is why the lorry got stuck there (it was towing a trailer of farm machinery) The driver jumped clear when he realised a train was coming, reportedly at 150 km/hr.

In this case a new LGV is being built to replace the line from before Le Mans to the entrance to Rennes, with a link onto the Le Mans-Angers-Nantes line which thus also gives a small speed-up to TGVs to Nantes not stopping at Le Mans. This branch will also be used by LGV-compatible local (TER) trains from Nantes to Rennes - quite a detour, but a gain in time.

Construction started this year, with opening due in 2017. Total length - 214 km, for a budget of 3400 M^. There are no new stations, and in addition to allowing TERs to come and play the Le Mans by-pass will be used by freight so it does not go through the town. Clearly this is an LGV having to justify its existence by more than just faster passenger services.

http://www.liberation.fr/societe/2013/10/16/collision-entre-un-tgv-et-un-camion-deux-blesses-legers_939865 (http://www.liberation.fr/societe/2013/10/16/collision-entre-un-tgv-et-un-camion-deux-blesses-legers_939865)