The plan to create an offense of road homicide which would replace the offense of manslaughter is eagerly awaited by the families of the victims. Some of them were present this morning at the trial of comedian Pierre Palmade.
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“Why say manslaughter! It’s not possible! It’s unbearable!“Margaritra Tran-Van, who lost her son in 2018 during a road accident caused by a public transport driver, is overwhelmed by emotion.
This mother, member of the Victims and Future association specialized in the care of victims of traffic accidents, traveled to Melun this morning for the opening of the trial of the comedian Pierre Palmade tried for his serious road accident under drugs in Seine-et-Marne last year.
The comedian appears before the criminal court, tried on the sole charge of involuntary injuries, aggravated by the use of drugs. But Margaritra Tran-Van wants Pierre Palamade “be convicted of manslaughter, because unfortunately road homicide is not yet in progress”.
“We have been asking for the creation of this traffic offense for ten years,” declares Cathy Bourgoin, president of the Justice Collective for Road Victims. She also presents this Wednesday morning in Melun. “We are focusing on Pierre Palmade but in the meantime, there are plenty of innocent people who are killed in the same circumstances and we are asking that justice apply the existing laws. You are liable with aggravating circumstances up to 'to 10 years in prison and a fine of €150,000, so we put 10 years in prison and a fine of €150,000.'
The president of the Justice Collective for Road Victims hopes that the offense of homicide will be introduced next year, that it will be included in the French Penal Code. “We must no longer have parents of victims receive summons mentioning involuntary homicide, this is no longer heard”, she laments.
Last January, deputies voted at first reading for the creation of an offense of road homicide on the basis of a transpartisan bill. Last March, the Senate, in turn, looked into this bill.
After debates and voting, the text was revised. It was therefore supposed to be examined again by the National Assembly, but the legislative process was interrupted due to the dissolution of the assembly last June.
The LR deputy for Alpes-Maritimes Eric Pauget, co-rapporteur of the law presented to the National Assembly last January, is confident. “Everyone agrees”assures the parliamentarian, citing the President of the National Assembly, the presidents of groups and Didier Migaud, the new Minister of Justice. “We are at the stage of finding a slot in the law committee and in the hemicycle to pass what we call second reading.”
The MP hopes that the text will be debated next January. Then it will have to go to the Senate for second reading and if “all the mode agrees on the text, it will become force of law”. Objective, summer 2025, after the implementing decrees.
“Honestly, the initial version which was voted on at the National Assembly level seemed satisfactory to us.” Pierre Lagache, vice-president of the league against road violence. “What the victims expect is that the sentences are above all at the right level (…) and the law is interesting because it incorporates new aggravating factors.”
In this text, road homicide will be punishable by the same penalties as those provided for today for involuntary homicide. In the event of a fatal accident, the maximum penalties are seven years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros.
But parliamentarians voted for an expansion of aggravating circumstances. In addition to consumption of drugs or alcohol, it is mentioned in this text, luse of the telephone while driving, driving without a license, consumption of psychoactive substances, failure to assist a person in danger, etc.
In the event of several aggravating circumstances, the perpetrator of the offense of “road homicide” risks up to ten years' imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros.
If one or more aggravating circumstances are recognized, we will no longer speak of involuntary homicide, but of road homicide. A simple semantic question?
It is not only symbolic for the department of legal and judicial communication Havas Legal Litigation, who accompanies, pro bono, the “Antoine Alleno Association”. In 2022, thehe son of the great chef Yannick Alleno was killed, in the middle of Paris, by a driver. The trial is ongoing. The accused is being prosecuted for manslaughter. Yannick Alléno is fighting for the establishment of an offense of road homicide.
“The fact of treating these involuntary homicides on the road as road homicides really in their own right: we are almost sure that this will lead to the seriousness of the facts being better taken into account. That the facts will be better appreciated and that the sentences applied will be higher, a little more up to par, without changing the maximum provided for by law“, estimates Naïri Khemtemourian, member of the department of legal and judicial communication
Pierre Lagache expects from this new law, “a signal”. “We use the terms accidents a lot and moreover, etymologically, it is a term which poses a problem. This refers to the trivialization of this road violence. Victims often hear: “it's bad luck, he was there at the wrong time”. This text must lead to a change in the way we view road violence. In 90% of serious accidents there is human fault. argument-t-il.
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