After several days of partying accompanied by drugs, the drama. Comedian Pierre Palmade is on trial on Wednesday in Melun for the serious road accident he caused last year in Seine-et-Marne while under the influence of drugs. On February 10, 2023 at the end of the day, on a road in the south of the department, Pierre Palmade drove a car which collided with a vehicle coming in front.
In addition to the then 54-year-old actor, the accident left three people from the same family seriously injured: a 38-year-old man, his six-year-old son and his 27-year-old sister-in-law, who lost her baby after the collision. ‘she was waiting.
“The strict interpretation of the criminal law”
At the end of a long year of judicial information in this high-profile case, the investigating judge referred the artist to the Melun criminal court at the end of May on the sole charge of involuntary injuries, aggravated by the use of drugs.
She did not retain the qualification of involuntary homicide, which the prosecution had requested for the loss of the fetus, considering that this thorny question at the confluence of bioethics and law deserved a “debate before the trial court”.
Following the accident, the baby was urgently extracted by cesarean section from his mother’s womb at six months of pregnancy, but declared dead after 32 minutes of resuscitation, without having given any sign of extra-uterine life. However, according to consistent case law from the Court of Cassation which has ruled on similar cases of road accidents, a child who is not born alive does not exist as a legal person.
“The strict interpretation of the criminal law does not authorize the repression and therefore prosecution of acts of involuntary homicide in the case of a child who was not born alive, which is the case” in the case Palmade, estimated the investigating judge in her order for referral to the criminal court, consulted by AFP.
Mired in drug addiction
At the end of a February day, after partying for several days, Pierre Palmade had a large quantity of cocaine and 3MMC (a synthetic drug) in his blood when he got behind the wheel with two passengers to go shopping . His hour of glory behind him, heavily in debt, the comedian is so mired in his drug addiction that he is no longer able to work.
On the departmental 372 near Villiers-en-Bière, the Peugeot 3008 of its production company veered into the oncoming traffic lane and collided head-on with the Renault Mégane of the Y. family, which was arriving in the opposite direction.
Several witnesses say they saw Pierre Palmade’s car come and bite on the side of the road, “like a person who falls asleep at the wheel”, then make a sudden swerve in the other direction to recover, which would have taken her to the opposite lane.
Whatever the exact course of the accident, of which the artist says he has no memory, “Pierre Palmade committed a driving error when he suddenly turned the steering wheel, thus causing his vehicle to drive in the opposite direction. “, concluded the investigating judge.
The actor faces a sentence of 14 years in prison and a fine of 200,000 euros
The injured family members are still suffering the physical and psychological consequences of the accident. During his first questioning before the investigating judge, Pierre Palmade said he was “dismayed” by the consequences of the accident for the victims.
“I’m obsessed with that, with the baby who died (…). I’m dangerous because of drugs, I’m a nice guy, I’m a good person,” declared the artist, who himself lost his father in a road accident at the age of 8.
Pierre Palmade is a repeat offender due to a conviction in 2019 for drug use. He thus faces a sentence of fourteen years’ imprisonment and a fine of 200,000 euros.
