The creation of an offense of “road homicide” adopted by the National Assembly at first reading

This new qualification was promised by Elisabeth Borne, then Prime Minister, after several fatal accidents including that caused by comedian Pierre Palmade.

The National Assembly voted at first reading a bill to create a new offense of “road homicide” on Wednesday January 31. This new qualification, requested by victims’ associations, would make it possible to clarify that of involuntary homicide, particularly when the driver has consumed alcohol or drugs.

This new offense has an especially symbolic value, because it does not change the quantum of penalties incurred. But the parliamentarians added new aggravating circumstances to the law: failure to assist a person in danger, use by the driver of headphones or a telephone in the hand, voluntary consumption in an indirect or manifestly excessive manner of psychoactive substances, refusal to comply and participate in an urban rodeo.

When there is only one aggravating circumstance, road homicide would be punishable by seven years of imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 euros. But when more than one circumstance is met, the offense would be punishable by ten years of imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros.

An act that is both “involuntary” and “voluntary”

This bill “is not just symbolic, it shows the deliberate nature of getting behind the wheel and dangerous driving” and can have “an effect on the sentence” that the judge will pronounce, estimates Renaissance MP Anne Brugnera, co-rapporteur of the text with LR Eric Pauget. This “road homicide” East “a mixed act”at a time “involuntary because the aim is not to kill” And “voluntary” For “taking alcohol” for example, said Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti. “We are creating a fair qualification for a situation that was poorly understood”justified the Minister of Justice.

The creation of this qualification is requested in particular by the association of three-star chef Yannick Alléno, whose son was killed by a driver in 2022 in Paris. Its creation was supported by the government, particularly after the dramatic accident caused by comedian Pierre Palmade on February 10, 2023, under the influence of drugs. The transpartisan bill, adopted unanimously but with abstentions on the left, must now head to the Senate.