victim in road accident, this bereaved mother fears the trial

JUSTICE – This is one of the notable trials of this fall 2024. From this Wednesday, November 20, Pierre Palmade is on trial in Melun for the serious road accident that he caused last year in Seine-et -Marne under the influence of narcotics.

On February 10, 2023 at the end of the day, on a road in the south of the department, the comedian was driving a car which had hit a vehicle coming in front. In addition to the actor, the accident left three people from the same family seriously injured: a 38-year-old man, his six-year-old son and his 27-year-old sister-in-law, who lost the baby she was expecting after the collision. .

On the eve of the trial, the latter spoke to RMC, mentioning “a trauma that [la] consumes entirely”. “The trial forces me to think again about the accident (…). Worry, nightmares and flashbacks resurface automatically,” explains Mila, who has been followed by a psychologist at least once a week since the accident.

She does not yet know if she will have “the strength to speak during the hearing”she who has no “never experienced a trial”.

“I only expect one thing, that the sanction is worthy of what Pierre Palmade did to me, and of the consequences which still crush us today”hopes Mila, who suffered from a detached shoulder blade which prevented her from moving normally for several months after the tragedy.

“A very heavy sanction [qui] sets a precedent »

The young woman wishes “a very heavy sanction [qui] sets a precedent for all women who have to go through the pain (…) of losing their baby while still in their womb. »

At the end of a long year of judicial information in this high-profile case, the investigating judge referred Pierre Palmade to the Melun criminal court at the end of May on the sole charge of involuntary injuries, aggravated by the use of drugs.

She did not retain the qualification of involuntary homicide, which the prosecution had requested for the loss of the fetus, considering that this thorny question at the confluence of bioethics and law deserved a “debate before the trial court”.

Following the accident, the baby was urgently extracted by cesarean section from his mother's womb at six months of pregnancy, but declared dead after 32 minutes of resuscitation, without having given any sign of extra-uterine life.

However, according to consistent case law from the Court of Cassation which has ruled on similar cases of road accidents, a child who is not born alive does not exist as a legal person.

Pierre Palmade is a repeat offender due to a conviction in 2019 for drug use. He thus faces a sentence of fourteen years' imprisonment and a fine of 200,000 euros.

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