Faced with the creation of a “road homicide”, Rémy Josseaume, a lawyer specializing in road law, says he regrets the lack of substantive reflection on the penalties applied to motorists under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
The creation of a “road homicide” is a “cosmetic reform“, estimates Monday, July 17 on franceinfo the lawyer specializing in road law Rémy Josseaume, for whom “it will not change anything in the life of drivers who decide to drive alcoholic or under narcotics“. Master Jousseaume calls for a “more general reform” with “a change in sentencing status and possibly even criminalization of certain behaviors“.
>>> “Road homicide”: “We need much stronger measures” than this symbolic measure, according to the Road Prevention association
franceinfo: “Road homicide” instead of “manslaughter”, is it just a change of word?
Remy Josseaume : Totally. It is a cosmetic reform. All the same, it has a non-negligible purpose in allowing victims to no longer hear in court the unintentional nature of acts that result from voluntary risk-taking. I would have preferred that we consider a broader reflection since what is targeted here will have no impact on potential perpetrators. The driver who has decided to drive drunk or under narcotics, whether it’s called road homicide or manslaughter, it’s not going to change anything in his life. Especially since the penalties are the same.
What should be done?
We may need to think about changing the status of the sentence and perhaps even criminalizing certain behaviors. In common parlance, we always talk about traffic criminals but they are treated like delinquents. Then, the Penal Code provides that intentional violence resulting in death without intention to give it represents a crime punishable by 15 years in prison. As a defender, I am confronted every day with these behaviors on the road and I see judgments which are nevertheless, most of the time, relatively favorable to traffic offenders. These behaviors will become generalized, in particular because of the trivialization of drugs.
What is the profile of those who cause road deaths?
20 years ago, there was the profile of someone who behaved badly on the road and in society. He was really a potential delinquent and sometimes a repeat offender. Today, it’s a little Mr. and Mrs. Everybody, there is no typical profile. They are as well integrated people as less integrated people, women as well as men, executives as well as non-executives. And I insist on drug driving. The more money you have, the more you will use expensive drugs, especially cocaine, we see it everywhere.
Is there a lack of prevention?
The law, once again, is badly made and badly drafted. You are convicted because you used narcotics and not because you are under the influence of narcotics. There are people who will use their joint of cannabis or their gram of cocaine on the weekend and who, the following Thursday, will test positive when they are no longer under the influence. I think that we will arrive at a more general reform where we will be able to consider that a person who has a certain blood alcohol level and a certain level of drugs in his body, which we can know very quickly and very easily by blood test, will incur a criminal penalty and no longer a tort penalty.