Lhe courtroom of the Dax criminal court was filled with broken young people this Thursday, December 5. The consequence of a singular accident, dated November 18, 2023, involving a single vehicle, but nine people, on the A 64 motorway. At the wheel of this Peugeot 207 bound for Landes and returning from an evening in Pau, Logan Meirinho, 19 years old at the time of the facts and young driver's license holder.
At his side, eight passengers aged 17 to 20, including five in the rear seat alone and two in the trunk. Results: a young adult ejected and died six hours later and injuries ranging from a simple hematoma to the brow bone to a fractured femur and a stroke. “We wonder how there were so few deaths,” wondered, at the hearing, one of the assessors of the president of the court, Laure Vuitton.
According to the technical expertise, the vehicle was traveling at a speed of 141.28 km/h before hitting the guardrail, rolling over multiple times and ending its journey, completely crumpled, on the emergency lane. According to his own confession during the investigation, Logan Meirinho drove “at 160 km/h”, in line with the “speed freak” described by those around him. The loss of control occurred while overtaking a truck and while the passengers less inhibited by sleep and alcohol had just asked him to slow down. “We are all going to die,” captioned the only girl on board in a video sent to a friend.
Few excuses
But if Logan Meirinho has always recognized the facts, his responsibility and his “stupidity”, his “laconic” attitude at the bar is far from having won over the Dax criminal court. “On the bench behind you, there are friends and Jahlen's mother (the young deceased, Editor's note), who are trying to understand,” the president said to the young man, with a gray and depressed expression. In the end, she only got a meager apology from him. “Madame expected more”, expressed in the process and during her pleading Me Coubris, the lawyer for the main victim and her mother, joined as a civil party.
“Mr. Meirinho played Russian roulette with a full barrel,” imagined the representative of the public prosecutor. Arguing the dramatic consequences of this accident – “a monumental waste”, conceded defense lawyer Me Lamouret –, Céline Bucau requested five years of imprisonment with thirty months of probation. “Requisitions never on the level of a son for a mother”, also motivated by the behavior of this young father during his pre-trial detention of around a year.
Still under the influence of drugs, Logan Meirinho violated the internal regulations of the penitentiary establishment six times. “Instead of turning around,” commented Me Coubris. Sentenced to four years of imprisonment, two of which were suspended on probation, Logan Meirinho was informed by the president of the court of the benefit of irreproachable behavior in prison, especially if he wants to see his sentence adjusted.
