Martelange gas explosion

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Border between the Belgian and Luxembourg parts of the double village and the N4 on which the accident occurred

The Martelange gas explosion occurred on August 21, 1967 in the Belgian / Luxembourg double village Martelange / Rombach and Obermartelingen .

Sequence and cause of the accident

The French driver drove through Martelange in a tanker truck with over 40,000 liters of liquid gas . The vehicle skid inside the village and overturned. The liquid gas tank ripped open at the seams and exploded. The explosion also caused the gasoline depots at a nearby gas station to explode. 22 people, including the driver of the truck, were killed and 47 suffered severe burns. There was great damage to property.

Whether braking failure, excessive speed or driver distraction contributed to the accident, could not be determined later.

Commemoration

On the N4 in the center of Marteling there is a memorial where on August 20, 2017, on the fiftieth anniversary of the explosion of Belgian and Luxembourg politicians, mayor of Marteling, Daniel Waty; Mayor of Rambrouch, Toni Rodesch; Governor of the Belgian Province de Luxembourg, Olivier Schmitz, the Walloon Minister for Rural Development, René Collin u. a., and many citizens from the double village of the misfortune was remembered. A special exhibition of the Cercle d'histoire de Martelange was set up in the local cultural center until September 6, 2017 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Unsecured by holiday traffic , Die Zeit, July 21, 1978, last accessed on August 21, 2017.
  2. ↑ Commémorations des 40 ans de la catastrophe de Martelange , RTL Info, August 26, 2007, last accessed on August 21, 2017.
  3. ^ Scars of a locality , Luxemburger Wort , August 20, 2017 and Inferno at the Sauerbrücke , Luxemburger Wort, August 21, 2017.


Coordinates: 49 ° 49 '59 "  N , 5 ° 42' 50"  E