A Romanian lorry driver has died after a metal drain cover that had been thrown from a bridge crashed through the windscreen of his truck. The man was driving along the E42 motorway between Héron (Liège Province) and Andenne (Namur province) on Friday night.
The Namur public prosecutor's office says that the drain was thrown from the bridge at around 1.30am. The drain cover went straight through the windscreen of the truck. The 50-year-old lorry driver died instantly. His girlfriend that was a passenger in the lorry was not injured. She managed to stop the vehicle safely.
In an interview with the Francophone commercial broadcaster RTL the Mayor of Héron Eric Hautphenne (socialist) said that the incident was a real tragedy “All the more so because the man’s son was following close behind in another truck”.
The public prosecutor says that the initial findings of the investigation point to it having been a deliberate act. The case is therefore being treated as murder and the public prosecutor is calling on witnesses to come forward. Mayor Hautphenne too said that this was a criminal act and that he hopes that those responsible will be found quickly.