five years after the accident, the trauma of a village

A few meters from the track by Millas (Eastern Pyrenees)a stele with six names engraved, those of the schoolchildren killed five years ago. Their bus had been hit by a train. A few days before the opening of the trial, the pain is still intense in the village. “Every time I pass [par cet endroit] it’s stronger than me, I can’t help it, the images come back to me”says a resident. On December 14, 2017, 23 sixth-grade students boarded the school bus to return home. Like every day, the bus took the departmental road towards the surrounding villages. After a few minutes of travel, he then arrives at an intersection. According to the judicial expertise, the level crossing barriers had already been lowered, which the driver has always disputed.

The bus was hit head-on by a TER. roger Garridothen deputy mayor, was one of the first to arrive. “Already there were bodies. The most atrocious thing is the cell phones ringing. (…) Six kids. Six for a village is huge”he said. Will the trial which opens on Monday be able to soothe the pain? At heart of debates will pose the question of the responsibility of the driver of the coach, alone appear on the defendants’ bench. According to the lawyer for one of the families, his clients are not necessarily waiting for a sanction, but “a form of appeasement and “a judicial truth”. The trial will be held in Marseilles (Bouches-du-Rhone) and will be broadcast in Perpignan (Eastern Pyrenees) for civil parties who cannot travel. It should last three weeks.