(Melun) French comedian Pierre Palmade, who a week ago caused a serious road accident in France under the influence of cocaine, was charged on Friday with manslaughter and placed under house arrest in a hospital, according to a judicial source.
The public prosecutor’s office in Melun, near Paris, which had requested pre-trial detention, will appeal this decision, taken by an examining magistrate, of house arrest with an electronic bracelet within an addictology service of a hospital, we said from the same source.
On the evening of February 10, the vehicle driven by Pierre Palmade had struck about fifty kilometers south of Paris a vehicle coming in the opposite direction.
Tests revealed that he was positive for cocaine at the time of the collision.
The three occupants of the other vehicle, a 38-year-old man, his 6-year-old son and his 27-year-old sister-in-law – six and a half months pregnant and who lost her baby – were seriously injured.
On Friday, the man and his child were still hospitalized in intensive care in serious condition, according to the Melun prosecutor.
The comedian was also injured in the crash.
“No specific memory”
Pierre Palmade “admitted having consumed cocaine as well as synthetic drugs before driving”, but “indicated having no precise memory of the circumstances of the accident”, indicated the prosecutor of Melun, Jean- Michel Bourles.
Two men, a 33-year-old Moroccan and a 34-year-old Frenchman, passengers in the artist’s car and who had fled the scene of the accident before help arrived, were placed under the status of assisted witnesses for failure to assist a person in danger.
“They had also consumed narcotics,” according to the prosecutor.
Popular in France, Pierre Palmade has already been sentenced for drug use. According to his sister, Hélène Palmade, he is “ashamed” after the accident and is ready to assume “the consequences of his actions”.
Narcotics are responsible for approximately 20% of road deaths each year in France.