On January 16, 2019, a work accident took place at a place called Beaulieu, in Saint-Père-Marc-en-Poulet, on a construction site. The manager of a carpentry company is at the controls of a forklift to unload beams from a truck, when one of the pallets slips from the forks of the machine. She falls on the other side of the machine, onto the driver of the truck who was putting away straps. He escaped with serious injuries and 180 days of temporary incapacity for work (ITT).
Thursday June 6, 2024, five years after the events, the victim appeared in court in a wheelchair. The manager of the carpentry company, aged 40, must answer for unintentional injuries and his company for breaches of safety obligations.
Five months suspended prison sentence required
He explains to the court that he “had not received training to drive the forklift, that he had not checked its condition, nor had he imagined that the driver was behind it. Usually, they are in their cabin when things are unloading.”
For both the prosecutor and the civil party, this sum “recklessness and negligence”makes him responsible for the accident.
In defense, the lawyers assert the opposite by raising a series of procedural nullities. They also consider that “the people who should have been prosecuted are not there”.
The prosecution is seeking five months in prison with a simple suspended sentence and a €3,000 suspended sentence against the defendant and a €20,000 fine against the carpentry company he manages.
The court will deliver its decision on July 11.
