A motorist was sentenced this Friday to two years in prison by the Albertville criminal court for the death of two road officers who were responding.
He was sending text messages while driving at 110 km/h: a motorist was sentenced this Friday, November 15 to two years in prison by the criminal court of Albertville (Savoie) for the death of two road officers then on intervention.
Found guilty of manslaughter by a driver, he also had his license canceled and was banned from repeating it for three years.
“I should never have used that phone,” the 32-year-old man told the court a month ago, admitting responsibility.
“I wasn’t paying attention.”
He will not appeal, according to his lawyer. On March 2, 2022, on national road 90, a mobile pruning site from the Interdepartmental Roads Directorate had just been installed, with appropriate signage, on the portion of the road where the tragedy took place, between Moûtiers and Albertville. At 12:05 p.m., a first material collision took place with another vehicle, before the fatal collision at 12:15 p.m. and 39 seconds.
At 12:14 p.m. and 51 seconds, the driver in question had just sent two text messages, while he was driving at 110 km/h in the right lane, where the construction site's signaling trailer was stopped.
“I didn’t see the advance warning, I wasn’t paying attention,” admitted the defendant on the stand, a delivery driver at the time of the incident. After sending his text messages, he “raised his head” before swerving the wheel to the left but without being able to avoid the two agents.
The investigation showed that the agents had respected all the safety rules during their intervention, even if one of the two victims was, according to a blood test, still under the influence of cannabis.
The defendant had not consumed alcohol or drugs before the incident. His criminal record was clean but he had already been fined for traffic violations.
