Almost five years after the disaster, the trial of the school bus driver opens on September 19 at 10:30 a.m. in Marseille. On December 14, 2017, a TER struck a bus at a level crossing in Millas (Pyrénées-Orientales). The accident resulted the death of six schoolchildren and left 17 injured (including eight very seriously). The driver of the bus, is tried for “homicides and involuntary injuries by recklessness or inattention”.
The trial opens in Marseille before the criminal court
The hearings will last three weeks, from September 19 to October 7. This trial is classified”extraordinary trial” by the Ministry of Justice by the assessment of the tragedy, affecting in particular children, and by the number of victims and the more than 123 civil parties. The Ministry has released 120,000 euros for the logistical organization of the trial.
The hearing will take place in the new “unusual trial room” of Marseille, with a capacity of 400 places. Inaugurated last January at the barracks of Muy, it has so far only hosted one trial.
A retransmission at the Palais des Congrès in Perpignan
The trial will be broadcast live in Perpignan in one of the halls of the Palais des Congrès, with 200 places available, in order to allow victims and civil parties, unable to travel to Marseille, to attend. Several victims’ associations are civil parties and in particular those created after this tragedy such as “In memory of our angels” and “Millas December 14, 2017”.
Support system for victims and civil parties
During the hearings, lawyers and psychologists from the Marseilles association for helping victims of crime (Avad) and France Victimes 66 will assist the civil parties, families of children who died in the accident and injured schoolchildren. It will be the same in the retransmission room in Perpignan. Two Labradors will also be present and will have the mission of assisting the victims, helping to free speech and reduce stress.
A defendant, the bus driver
The school bus driver, Nadine Oliviera, aged 52, is tried for six manslaughters and also for involuntarily injuring 17 college students, resulting in total work stoppages of two to 180 days.
Nadine Oliviera’s defenders described her as always devastated by tragedy. She will also benefit from the assistance of a psychologist.
An instruction to the Marseilles court
The investigation was conducted by the Marseilles court, which hosts one of the two poles specializing in collective accidents, created in France in 2015. The driver is accused of “not having paid attention to the closed nature of the level crossing and to have forced the half-barrier closed as a regional express train arrived“.
But the driver always maintained that “the barriers were lifted and that she would never have crossed a lowered barrier“, according to the words of his lawyer, Me Jean Codognès.
The deliberation in December
This question about the barriers will be the main issue of this trial which will end on October 7th. The driver of the school bus risks seven years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros. The Marseille judges should render their deliberations before the end of the year, avoiding it being close to the anniversary date of the tragedy.