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In Sales, in Haute-Savoie, a family was forced to transport their father’s body who died over 500 meters on foot. The only rural path leading to their home had been prohibited from access by the town hall due to partial collapse.
Antoine, 74, had lived for 35 years, alone at the end of this trail in Sales (Haute-Savoie) prohibited traffic since its partial collapse in December 2023. On March 27, 2025, his daughter Chloé found him lifeless at his home. But the emergency services could not access the house, reports The Dauphiné liberated.
“I had warned them all,” said Chloé. For more than a year, she had alerted the consequences of the indictment of her father’s house. Forbidden to access by municipal decree, the path – belonging to the municipality – had become impracticable for vehicles.
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When his father died, Chloé calls for help who descend on foot. The firefighters explained to her that she should probably go up the body of her father alone “because no one would come”. And that was the case. With his mother, his brother, his sister, and two employees of the funeral directors, they had to transport the body over 500 meters, at arm’s length. “For a family in mourning, is it unworthy. Where is humanity in all of this?”
For the family, the responsibility of the town is clear. “The town hall let my father live without a path, knowing that he was sick and that no one could help him. He had lived there for 35 years, he was left-formed,” said Chloé.
“It’s a regrettable outcome”
The town hall had proposed to create a new path via a private field, but this option required a complex legal proceedings, that the inhabitant had neither the strength nor the means of engaging.
Contacted, the mayor of Sales, Yohann Tranchant, says he never wanted to leave the family in distress. “I did not know that she had helped up the body, it is a regrettable outcome,” he defends herself.
But for the town, the rural road to the mill – not maintained for three decades – is condemned. Especially since the deceased house is located in a flood zone and is not connected to drinking water.
