Immediately after the Plateau de Bure cable car accident on July 1st, 1999, a legal inquiry into the penal and civil responsibilities had started. This led to a first judgement in February 2004 in which several persons, including two former IRAM employees, and IRAM as a legal entity were considered responsible and condemned. Following the appeals put in by several parties, and also by the State Prosecutor, the case was reconsidered at the Court of Appeal in Grenoble in May/June this year.
The higher Court delivered its judgement on October 13th this year. It largely confirmed the initial judgement with the exception that the controle organism, APAVE, was also considered responsible as a legal entity (before it had been involved only through one of its employees who was considered responsible).
Despite the fact that the new judgement is less favorable for IRAM and still leaves open many questions, the Executive Council decided to accept the Court decision in order to put an end to the court case. The fine that IRAM has to pay because of its penal responsibility has been paid, and all civil responsibility issues have been settled in the meantime through IRAM's insurance company.
This closes a long and difficult chapter in the history of IRAM. Without ever forgetting what has happened, we all can and must now look ahead.