Last Thursday, a bus left the road while traveling on the RD2 in the town of Monein, near Pau, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Among the passengers, a young girl died on the spot. According to the Pau public prosecutor's office, the driver was driving under the influence of cocaine.
The accident occurred in broad daylight, around 12:15 p.m., on a straight line and without the intervention of a third party, according to initial investigations. Observations on site made it possible to determine that the vehicle first veered off course “before biting the shoulder of the road, then overturning onto its right side”, specifies the prosecution.
“A gram of cocaine two days earlier”
At that time, the bus was carrying only three passengers. A 16-year-old girl, “died following this accident”, and two other people aged 15 and 20, slightly injured. According to the Pau prosecutor, the bus driver, aged 55, escaped “unharmed”.
The driver was subjected to toxicological tests, which turned out to be positive for cocaine. Placed in police custody, the accused actually admitted “having been able to consume around a gram of cocaine two days earlier”. To explain the accident, the driver explained that he had “felt the bus leaving” while he was “driving calmly” and that he had not managed to right it.
Read our file on narcotics
On Saturday, the fifty-year-old was indicted for “involuntary manslaughter by the driver of a vehicle using drugs” and “unintentional injuries”. He was placed in pre-trial detention.
