There will be a second trial for the author of the fatal accident which occurred on November 7, 2021 at the Saint Sauveur roundabout, in Tours. The Tours prosecutor’s office appealed a few minutes after the conviction of this 25-year-old driver on Thursday evening. Instead of the required six years, the criminal court sentenced the man to two years and one year suspended. A sentence deemed insufficient by the prosecution.
This man broke everyone who loved Marine” – the victim’s sister, reading a letter during the hearing
Around 3:30 a.m. on November 7, a 24-year-old mother had been fatally hit by a vehicle which had fled. The driver finally surrendered to the police the next day. This afternoon, a dozen relatives of the victim came to attend these four hours of hearing with, for some, a photo of the young mother, smiling, on a T-shirt. They were hoping for answers, but the defendant didn’t give many.
The car entered the roundabout at 95 kilometers per hour instead of 50. She skidded a little, was straightened out by the driver and was still traveling at 58 when she hit the crossing victim. “If the expert says that, that’s itconcluded the accused in a dull voice. The former salesman who had no more points on his driving license at the time of the accident recounts the festive evening in Fondettes, the return to Tours to bring back a woman he does not know and two friends. They are drunk, but he maintains that he didn’t drink anything because he was on an anti-depressant. Just after the accident, he parks his car, goes to see the victim, unconscious but alive. He asks a friend to call the emergency services and stays until the firefighters arrive, without ever going to see the investigators to designate himself as the author of the accident.
It’s a dramatic issue, but as Madam President reminded us, it’s still an accident. The consequences were not wanted by my client and this is what the court retains in its deliberation” – The defense lawyer
There are still a lot of questions with always the same answer: why did you erase the traces of collision on your car? Shock. Why his exchanges with his friends, on Instagram, which suggest that he wants to conceal the accident? Shock. Why did you wait 1 p.m. to go to the police station? Shock. For the prosecutor, it is an excuse that hides lies. Same feeling among the relatives of the victim. “We can only kneel before the pain of this family“estimated Master Abed Bendjador son after the verdict condemning his client to three years in prison, including two years closed. It remains an accident. The consequences were not wanted by my client and this is what the court retains in its deliberation. The trial is a very painful moment to go through, especially for the civil party, also for my client and his family since he has been imprisoned for a year when he was not known to the courts.
When the verdict was announced, the father and mother of the victim collapsed, supported by the rest of the family. The father, upset, could not hide his bitterness: “two years in prison for a life with a five-year-old girl who will only have a mother, it’s not expensive to pay. We did not have the answers to our questions. We always remain in doubt and we will always remain in the lies that we have had since the start. There was no truth in this trial”. A few minutes later, the prosecution announced that it was appealing. The driver will therefore be retried in a few months.
Two years in prison for a life with a five-year-old girl who will only have a mother, it’s not expensive to pay” – The father of the victim