The accident on the Rampe de Laffrey on July 18, 1973 remains, , the worst to ever have occurred along that stretch of roadway

Rampe de Laffrey

The Rampe de Laffrey is a section of France's Route nationale 85, today called the Route Napoléon, located in the department of Isère between the communes of Laffrey and Vizille, about fifteen kilometers southeast of Grenoble...

, among the worst in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. A bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

 was carrying Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 pilgrim

Pilgrim

A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journeying to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system...

s from Braine-le-Comte

Braine-le-Comte

Braine-le-Comte is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut.On January 1, 2006, Braine-le-Comte had a total population of 20,305...

 returning from a visit to the shrine of Our Lady of La Salette

Our Lady of La Salette

La Salette is a small mountaintop village near Grenoble, France. It is most noted for an apparition of the Virgin Mary that was reported in 1846 by two shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, followed by numerous accounts of miraculous healings....

; it missed a curve

Curve

In mathematics, a curve is, generally speaking, an object similar to a line but which is not required to be straight...

 at the base of the road, near its intersection with the bridge over the Romanche

Romanche

The Romanche is a 78 km long mountain river in southeastern France, right tributary of the Drac . Its source is in the northern part of the Massif des Écrins, Dauphiné Alps. It flows into the Drac in Champ-sur-Drac, south of Grenoble. The road from Grenoble to Briançon over the Col du Lautaret runs...

, and overturned. Forty-three people were killed and six injured in the resulting crash. After the crash the mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Laffrey

Laffrey

Laffrey is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.- See also :* Communes of the Isère department* Rampe de Laffrey* Grand lac de Laffrey* Route Napoléon...

 condemned the route as being particularly dangerous, as it had already claimed over one hundred lives over the previous quarter-century.

The accident is sometimes referred to as the accident de Vizille because it occurred very close to the entrance of the town of that name

Vizille

Vizille is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.Vizille is home to the Musée de la Révolution Française de Vizille, a rich depository of archival and rare materials devoted to the French Revolution, housed since 1984 in the Château de Vizille, a Monument Historique. The library...

; the crash site, however, is actually located within the boundaries of the commune

Communes of France

The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 of Notre-Dame-de-Mésage

Notre-Dame-de-Mésage

Notre-Dame-de-Mésage is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.-See also:*Communes of the Isère department...

. Today a memorial to the victims stands at the site of the accident; it claims the number of dead as forty-five.