Saturday April 30, 2022, a 66-year-old motorist died in a terrible face-to-face encounter in Vézelin-sur-Loire. The driver of the other vehicle was prosecuted before the Roanne judicial court, this Tuesday, May 7, for involuntary homicide.
The shock was extremely violent. You only need to see the condition of the Renault Kangoo to understand that the motorist who was behind the wheel had very little chance of escaping. Despite the joint intervention of firefighters and a medical team from Smur, the sixty-year-old, living in Nervieux, could not, in fact, be brought back to life. Opposite, the driver of the Renault Master had escaped, miraculously, with only a few bruises.
Straight around the bend
The testimonies of motorists who witnessed the scene, the investigation carried out by the gendarmes and the expertise of the two damaged vehicles all pointed in the same direction: the man, driving the utility vehicle, was responsible. Before starting a curve to the right of Departmental 8 towards Roanne, his vehicle, without braking, went straight ahead, crossed the solid line and collided head-on with someone arriving in the opposite direction.
The frontal impact took place just before a curve.
Neither the weather conditions nor the road conditions were bad that day. But how could this terrible accident have happened this Saturday, April 30, 2022? Alcohol consumption ? Narcotics? Excessive speed? Falling asleep? This is not the case for the first two points. All toxicological analyzes did not reveal any particular substance. For the third point, excessive speed, nothing in the file has demonstrated it. The appointed expert did not, in any case, mention this in his conclusions. “I was traveling at an appropriate speed,” promises the man, now 65 years old, at the Roanne court.
“He destroyed everyone’s lives. Maybe he fell asleep, maybe he had a problem. We can understand, but we take it very badly. We blame him terribly. “
Son of the deceased (at the Roanne court)
As for a possible fall asleep, this would not be the case either, the driver remembering the accident. “I am not against the witnesses, nor against the expert, but, for me, I was driving in my lane. I had the impression that she was rushing towards me. I don’t know how that could have happened” , defends the one who is a traveling trader and travels thousands of kilometers each year. “It traumatized me. It remains in my head and in my heart. I think of this lady, of her children, of her grandchildren,” he confides.
The expected person was at the wheel of the Renault Master at the time of the tragedy.
“This accident had particularly serious circumstances. The gentleman must realize this and admit it,” points out the representative of the public prosecutor. The victim’s son supports this remark, testifying on the stand, not without emotion: “He destroyed everyone’s lives. Maybe he fell asleep, maybe he had a concern. We can understand, but we feel very bad about it.
“Responsible”, but “not guilty”, according to his lawyer
Faced with requisitions from the Public Prosecutor’s Office set at 18 months’ imprisonment, 10 of which will be suspended, the latter’s lawyer, Me Mallem, pleads for his release. “He is not guilty, but responsible,” he assures. According to him, no criminal offense can be attributed to his client, only his civil liability can be engaged.
After very long minutes of debate behind closed doors, the judges of the Roanne court considered, on the contrary, to have “found a criminal fault, namely that the vehicle left its lane of traffic”. Thus, the driver was sentenced to 18 months suspended sentence. The cancellation of his driving license was also recorded.
Pauline Michaud
