Michel, the forgotten victim of Pierre Palmade, testifies to his injuries and media harassment

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In Villiers-en-Bière, in Seine-et-Marne, the third vehicle involved in the collision with the Peugeot 3 008 of Pierre Palmade – about whom we ultimately spoke very little – was led by Michel G., an 87-year-old man, civil party in the trial. At the helm, this discreet retiree finally delivered the only complete vision from the accident scene since the other occupants either saw nothing, or were affected by post-traumatic amnesia.

Vehicles transformed into a top

The motorist at the wheel of his Twingo closely followed the Renault Megane of the damaged family. “Between 60 and 70 km/h” he specifies. We know in fact that the driver of the Megane drove slowly, as a precaution, to avoid the effect of the chaos which could have upset his pregnant passenger.

“Everything happened in 10 secondsI did not have time to react”, specifies Michel G, assisted by M^e François-Xavier Emmanuelli. He remembers suddenly seeing the 3008 which was arriving opposite, suddenly shift to its left and rush straight towards the victims' car. A shock extremely violentinevitable which transformed the top vehicles. The Twingo then collided with the dislocated carcass of the Megane stopped across the road.

A traumatic experience

The octogenarian, living in Perthes-en-Gâtinais, was quite seriously injured in his hands and legs, to the point of still suffering after-effects today. The other trauma that he reported before the judges of Melun was that of hordes of journalists hungry for information, in this highly publicized affair.

For two months, while the media pressure had not yet subsided, they continued to harass him to the point of laying siege to his home and following him in the street when he went out to do his shopping. “I understood what media harassment was when I did not want to express myself before the trial,” he lamented.

Jean-François CALTOT

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