The Namur resident is being prosecuted before the Namur Criminal Court for malicious obstruction of traffic, with the aggravating circumstance that one of the victims suffers from a permanent disability. He is also accused of having driven a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. After the accident, he had a level of 1.25g of alcohol/l of blood.
His conduct is clearly called into question by the civil party, the Namur public prosecutor’s office and several witnesses who came forward to the Arches police zone after the accident. It comes from unconsciousness. The driver of the BMW was pressing on the vehicles in front of him. To overtake them, he did not hesitate to take the opposite lane despite the presence of islands on the central lane. “His malicious obstruction of traffic began at Place de Sclayn, where the speed limit is 50km/h, and continued until the point of impact where it was 90km/h. I pass by there every day and this morning I was very careful. I still wonder how it was possible to envisage an overrun at this location.” says substitute Marganne.
“He engaged in voluntary behavior and the resulting accident was inevitable,” continues the civil party, who therefore considers, like the Namur public prosecutor’s office, that the malicious obstruction of traffic has been established.
New facts after the accident
Ten prison sentences and a lifetime disqualification of driving license were required against the driver. “Two years per victim.” The consequences for the five injured are serious. A teenage girl had her spleen and liver exploded. His dad, who was driving the vehicle, no longer walks. “In the months following the accident alone, he underwent 9 operations. His lower limbs and pelvis were in pieces. The engine of the Kia was in the passenger compartment. For months, he lay in bed watching the fir trees outside the window For three and a half years, he has been going to his physiotherapist every day to try to regain his mobility.explains Me Gillet.
“I can still see him coming in front of us and I can assure you that he was not going slowly. I had an active life, here I am disabled for life. My life is shattered because of a savage”testifies the dad.
The driver obviously had the floor during his trial. “I don’t remember anything, I woke up with my head in the steering wheel”, he explains in court. “I don’t recognize myself in this way of riding. I returned to the scene and I don’t even see how I could have considered overtaking at this location. I never wanted to hurt anyone.”he explains.
Regrets which go down badly with the victims, but also with the public prosecutor. Beyond the seriousness of the facts, it is also and above all the lack of awareness on the part of the defendant which pushed the Namur public prosecutor’s office to request such a heavy sentence. The man had already been convicted twice by a police court for speeding, in 2016 and 2020. After this accident, he received two other convictions. One for speeding, the other for approaching an intersection without caution and involuntary assault and battery while under the influence of alcohol. “It was also checked at 148 and 156 instead of 90 km/h, in March and February 2024. You learn nothing! What are you waiting for? To kill someone?”finishes the Namur flooring.
“His place is not in prison”
The defense considers that malicious obstruction has not been established and requests a reclassification as rolling prevention because the accident which was caused was not intentional. The lawyer specifies that the expert did not note a speed that was too high. “The impression that the witnesses had is not demonstrated in his report.” He also points out the low sun which could have hindered his client’s visibility. Finally, according to the expert, the two most seriously injured victims were not wearing their belts. What these two people dispute. “We cannot brush aside what the expert says. Would the consequences have been the same if they had made it? This changes everything in the way the law is applied.”
A prison sentence with a total suspension, possibly probationary and a serious disqualification of the driving license, without it being for life, are pleaded. “He doesn’t belong in prison.” Judgment on January 10.
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