Many local residents remain shocked by the violence of the accident, while many questions regarding the security of the avenue and the age of the driver arise.
A shock of great violence. Wednesday June 5, an octogenarian motorist collided head-on with a group of children who were riding bicycles in an avenue in La Rochelle. The accident left seven people injured, three of whom were serious, among young cyclists aged 8 to 11, authorities announced. One of the young victims was hospitalized in an “extreme emergency”.
“The impression of a terrorist act”
The children, wearing helmets and reflective vests, were supervised by two leisure activity leaders and were used to traveling by bike. Shocked, many local residents who witnessed the collision remember a scene of chaos. “It gave me the impression of a terrorist act because there were children entangled in bicycles on the ground,” Annick explains to BFMTV.
“Here, in front of my gate, there were three or four children who collided or who were mowed down together. There was one who was really in a terrible state,” she adds.
Ainhoa, a young resident, arrived shortly after the shock and helped the children while waiting for help to arrive. “There were children on the ground screaming. Immediately I went down and went towards the children who were not injured,” she told RMC.
On the radio, the father of a child who was not injured in the collision assures him, “he was very scared.” “He saw the car arrive, the children hit, blood, screams. Those were his first words, fear and sadness for his friends,” he emphasizes.
“It’s too dangerous”
After this collision, many questions arise. Annick, who has lived on this avenue for many years, wonders about the behavior of motorists who use this artery where vehicles can travel in both directions and are limited to 30 km/h. “80% of people don’t respect intersections or mileage,” she maintains.
Then, the subject of the advanced age of the motorist, aged 83, quickly returns. “She didn’t brake, there are no brake marks. The lady was inside, shocked, she didn’t realize what she had done,” said Michel, a witness, still with RMC.
In the columns of South West, parents who came to pick up their children believe that it is now important to “set up medical visits for seniors.” “It’s over, I won’t let my son ride a bike alone anymore. It’s too dangerous,” a mother told local media.
A child in “extreme emergency”
At the start of the evening, all of the children were in “a stable medical condition”, according to the latest press release from the public prosecutor in La Rochelle Arnaud Laraize.
The most seriously injured, a little girl who was part of this group of twelve children aged 7 to 11 years old registered in a municipal leisure center, was evacuated by helicopter and hospitalized in Tours in “extreme emergency”, added the magistrate.
Among the six other injured, “two children are in absolute emergency”, including one evacuated to Poitiers, four others were taken care of in La Rochelle in “relative emergency” and two of them, “slightly injured”, were able to leave the hospital at the end of the afternoon, according to the prosecution’s report.
