A 39-year-old motorist appeared Tuesday, December 10 before the Blois criminal court to answer to homicide and involuntary injuries. It caused an accident on the D952 at Veuzain-sur-Loire on December 27, 2023 which caused the death of an elderly person, injured his daughter and his son-in-law. The accident occurred at 10:20 a.m., three vehicles were involved: the defendant’s Opel Corsa vehicle which was driving towards Blois, before hitting the car coming in the opposite direction and which was itself hit by the vehicle which followed her.
The rear passenger of the vehicle hit head-on died, the couple seated in the front were seriously injured. “At first it was driving straight, then it shifted, I couldn’t do anything,” the injured driver will say. The couple went to Amboise before joining Vouvray (Indre-et-Loire). A witness saw the defendant’s vehicle sometimes moving to the left then to the right. “There was a truck in front of him, I thought he wanted to overtake ithe declared to the gendarmes, then he hit the car coming in front. He said he fell asleep at the wheel. »
“I didn’t feel sleep coming”
The motorist hit by the defendant suffered physical injuries and psychological trauma leading to 50 days of total incapacity for work (ITT), his wife, also injured, had 25 days of ITT.
The young man was not on the phone at the time of the accident. “I fell asleep because of fatigue. I am a baker, I had a lot of long days of work. It was my day off, I was coming back from a medical examination in Tours, I didn’t feel sleep coming, I don’t remember straying from the road. I had already had a material accident two years before because of falling asleep. » The driver suffered a broken ankle caused by the impact.
The defendant, whose record is nil, wrote two letters of apology to the victims. “I really didn’t mean to cause this accident,” he declares to the couple seated behind him.
For Me Audrey Hamelin, lawyer for the civil party, “fatigue killed and injured three members of the same family, the deceased victim had overcome the illness and planned to go to the south of France to settle with his eldest daughter. My clients have no hatred or anger, but before this hearing, it was still too early to receive the defendant’s apologies, my client is still in pain, her husband suffered more serious injuries, their damage is not not yet fixed. »
Not the first time
During her requisitions, the substitute Anaïs Allio returns to the swerves which preceded the collision and recalls that it was not the first time that the driver fell asleep at the wheel. “The victim was unable to do anything to avoid the collision. » She is asking for a 15-month suspended sentence and the cancellation of her license with a ban on re-taking it for three months and a fine of €135.
In defense, Me Najda Agzanay pleads for indulgence, “involuntary homicides are the most difficult cases to plead, no sanction will extinguish the victims’ sentence, but no aggravating circumstances such as drugs and alcohol at the origin of this collision, the fault of fatigue, its Old model car not equipped with a swerve warning device, my client is very sorry, his remorse is sincere. »
The decision will be made on December 17.
