Two barges, with a total weight of 5,150 t pushed by a tug, were heading up the River RHONE towards Lyon. At 6.35 am, a safety hawser gave way, the barges jack-knifed and the tug sank. Out of the 5 crew members, a bargeman was reported missing. The River was in flood and the flow rate had reached 3,500 m³/s. The two barges came to rest against two railway bridge piers. Two tugs maintained thrust against the barges to limit the forces on the bridge’s piers and prevent them from giving way. One of the barges was transporting containers (2,500 t) and the other benzene (2,650 t). The 2,200 m³ of benzene were distributed in seven7 double-walled tanks. The double-shell, even if the outer wall is breached, maintains the stability of the barge. No benzene leaks were observed. The train traffic on the bridge was interrupted and the electricity supply was cut off. Navigation on the RHONE was halted. The natural gas pipeline supplying La Voulte and anchored to the bridge deck was secured. On 23 January, 700 people were evacuated over a 500 m radius and a diversion was set up via the RN 86 trunk road during the operations to unload the containers from the barge using 3 track-mounted cranes on the river bank. On 24 January, the benzene was transferred into a tanker barge; as the manoeuvre was less risky, the safety perimeter was reduced to 200 m.