New trial of the Millas tragedy: the bus driver “will be there from Monday with the desire to express herself”

“Nadine Oliveira will be there”, assures his Perpignan lawyer M^e Jean Codognes. If doubt still hovered recently, the driver of the school bus involved in the tragic accident in Millas, now aged 55, will take her place this Monday for the opening of her appeal trial before the Court of ‘Aix-en-Provence. She who had not been seen since she collapsed on the stand on the fourth day of the hearing in Marseille in 2022, before being taken care of by the firefighters, evacuated with “broken heart syndrome“and hospitalized in intensive care for more than a week.”She broke down when she was subjected to a flood of questions, when she didn’t have time to answer one when another one came flying out.” traces his lawyer. “But above all what made him let go were the photos of the accident and the faces of the children who died“. So will she be able to cope this time?

Two years have passed. Nadine Oliveira left the Pyrénées-Orientales to settle in the Nîmes sector and is said to have started training as an accounting assistant. Seriously injured in the Millas accident, she suffered eight fractures of the sternum and a sunken face which required facial reconstruction in 3 or 4 stages. Today, “She is a toned woman but who is also under chemical treatments to help her last these three weeks. In a report, it is said that she is obsessed by the accident”, says the lawyer. But the mother, who is being monitored at the cardiology department in Marseille North, underwent an examination there on Tuesday to assess whether she could cope psychologically and physically. “Subject to some precautions at the hearing”, the doctors told her that she could be present. And the psychologists they have seen regularly for seven years have prepared her for the trial. “Then she will be there. Just like she was ready for this the first time, she is willing to speak out.”

“She wishes to make it clear that she has no criminal responsibility for this accident”

“It’s a terrible accident because six children died and others were cruelly injured. But there are several aspects to this case. There is the moral side. When you are behind the wheel of a vehicle involved in a traffic accident, responsible or not, you are destroyed”, explains again Me Codognes whowill defend the driver with Me Jean-Louis Fagniez. “There is also the criminal aspect. And we appealed his conviction because Nadine Oliveira maintains that the barriers were lifted, and we have elements to believe that there is absolutely no proof that they had been lowered. She wishes to make it clear that she has no criminal responsibility for this accident.

Unsurprisingly, Nadine Oliveira’s lawyers will therefore plead for acquittal. “We can understand that victims and parents need an answer, because it is part of the work of mourning and because an explanation is needed, but we believe that the right explanation is needed. It’s always a delicate situation, we are aware of it, but the judicial logic can sometimes be incomprehensible for families.”