“I am very happy to have been able to be heard by the courts,” explained the victim’s mother after the announcement of the deliberations, which recognized the transport company as guilty of “homicide and aggravated involuntary injuries”. This nurse gave poignant testimony during the trial at the end of November, she who was driving the car alongside her daughter on November 18, 2019 when the bridge crossing the Tarn gave way.
An exceptional convoy weighing nearly 60 tonnes had used the building designed to support a maximum load of 19 tonnes. The 38-year-old driver and owner of the transport company, and the 15-year-old girl were killed, although the latter's mother was able to be rescued.
“If I am so strong, it’s for her”
At the trial, an expert established that the bridge was “absolutely not capable of supporting a truck with a load of 58 tonnes”. “I think every day of my family, every day she is with me, she accompanies me, if I am so strong today it is for her, I want her not to have lost her life for nothing and that responsibilities are clearly determined in his death,” declared the victim’s mother.
The structure, a metal structure dating from 1931, had been inspected two years previously and then was the subject of an inspection visit in December 2018, less than a year before the accident.
