On January 12, 2019, rue de Trévise in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, an explosion killed four people, including two firefighters, injured more than 200 people and left around 400 victims. This Thursday, October 17, 2024, a trial for homicide and involuntary injuries was requested against the town hall of the capital and the co-ownership trustee.
In its indictment signed on Monday, the public prosecutor requests that the City of Paris and the trustee also be tried before the criminal court “for involuntary destruction by the effect of an explosion or fire”, specifies Laure Beccuau in a press release. It is now up to the investigating judges to decide whether or not to hold a criminal trial.
A breach “of an obligation of safety or prudence”
“The City of Paris is accused of having committed errors of imprudence and negligence, by not carrying out the necessary investigations to determine the cause of the subsidence of the sidewalk in front of the porch of n°6 rue de Trévise, and by not carrying out the work necessary to remedy it”explains Laure Beccuau.
Also read: Explosion on rue de Trévise in Paris: the state of the gas pipe questioned by an expert report
This subsidence led to the rupture of a gas pipe which caused the explosion. “He is also accused of breaching an obligation of safety or prudence imposed by law or regulation, for not having carried out monitoring checks on the repairs to the sidewalk in front of the porch in accordance with the road regulations of the City of Paris of 2015 »adds the prosecutor.
Suspicions of “recklessness or negligence”
For his part, the trustee is suspected of having committed “a reckless or negligent act consisting of delaying the repair of the building’s wastewater collector” although he had been informed “from November 25, 2015 of a wastewater leak”she continues. “These failings contributed” when the explosion occurred, concludes Laure Beccuau.
A judicial investigation was opened at the end of January 2019. The Paris town hall and the building’s co-ownership trustee were indicted during the procedure for “homicides and involuntary injuries” and “destruction, degradation or deterioration by the effect of an explosion or fire.
The construction company Fayolle, responsible for the work on the sidewalk in November 2016, had for its part been placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness. GRDF is not targeted by any lawsuit.
Related News :