On August 4, 2018, Kévin, aged 17, died hit by a car, as he walks home from the Soustons celebrations. The driver who hit him is an agent of the department’s road service who was going on an intervention in Orthevielle, on another fatal accident which occurred shortly before. More than three and a half years after the events, the gendarmerie of St-Vincent-de-Tyrosse decided to launch an appeal for witnesses.
At first, the case was dismissed by the Dax prosecutor’s office, considering that it was only a tragic accident, and that the driver could do nothing to avoid Kevin. In 2019 however, the family is a civil party and obtains the reopening of the investigation. The procedure is following its course and a call for witnesses is therefore requested by the investigating judge in charge of the case.
Such an approach, three and a half years after the facts, may seem surprising. But finally, between the accident and this call for witnesses, little has changed in the procedure, explains the family lawyer. The fault of a change of investigating judge, the fault also of the coronavirus, which has considerably slowed down justice. As proof: the expert report of the accident, which was only made last September. In December, a new witness was also heard.
“We need answers”
The reality too is that the family is still waiting for answers. “We always ask ourselves the same questions”, describes Nathalie, Kevin’s mother. “At night we wake up, we wonder what happened, we dive back into the file. We need to move forward, we need to have answers to simple questions”, she adds.
Kevin’s relatives therefore hope that this call for witnesses will work, even three and a half years after the fact, and that people will come forward to tell what they saw or heard on August 4, 2018. “A car accident like this is not forgotten, it remains engraved”, assures the mother of the young man.
If you have any information, contact the gendarmerie of Saint-Vincent-de-Tyrosse at 05.58.77.58.28.