the driver must be judged “for who she is and for what she did”, declares one of the victims’ lawyers

The appeal trial of the driver of the school bus hit in Millas in 2017 begins Monday.

The driver of the school bus hit at a level crossing in Millas (Pyrénées-Orientales) seven years ago must be judged “for who she is and for what she did. She was a professional driver who forced a level crossing“, assures on France Bleu Roussillon, Monday October 7, Maître Marie Mescam, lawyer for the civil parties and who defends seven families, including that of a deceased little girl.

The second trial of the Millas tragedy opens Monday afternoon before the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, seven years after the tragedy. The school bus accident at a level crossing claimed the lives of six schoolchildren and injured 17 others. The driver of the bus, hit by a train, was found guilty in 2022, so she appealed.

For Maître Marie Mescam, lawyer for the civil parties, these three new weeks of trial will be a real ordeal for the victims’ families. Some civil parties will not be present this year for this new trial. “Two years ago, it was very hard for them. Very, very hard”. They do not wish “inflict this second trial on yourself”. For their lawyer, the families are “angry” today to have to “relive” this episode. “They were there” at the first trial, “on the other hand, Mrs. Oliveira was not there”regrets Me Mescam.

During the first trial, the court established that the barrier had been lowered and that Nadine Oliveira, without doing so on purpose, had forced the barrier of the Millas level crossing. The defense lawyers will call new witnesses and are still demanding acquittal.

“Two years ago, the families expected Ms. Oliveira, the bus driver, to accept her responsibility and for her distress to reflect the weight of her guilt,” explains the lawyer. But “They spent three extremely trying weeks where Ms. Oliveira expressed her distress, but not her guilt, her distress was the fact that she was innocent. It was being wrongly accused.”

Families wish “that Mrs. Oliveira be judged for what she did”, assures Me Mescam who is waiting for the court of appeal “Let us put aside the way in which she highlights her distress to judge Ms. Oliveira for who she is and for what she did. He was a professional driver who forced a level crossing while ‘she was driving a school bus and who, because she is not looking at the road, will arrive at a level crossing and push the barrier until she finds herself with the bus in the middle of the railway tracks, when the TER is coming.”

Nadine Oliveira is 55 years old today. She is still under psychiatric care and she is also being treated for her heart problems, since her discomfort in the courtroom during the first trial, reports France Bleu Roussillon. She wants to attend her trial and her lawyers want to too. But the victims’ lawyer doubts it : “We already have a medical certificate in the file which was submitted by the defense and we tell ourselves that it will start again, that Ms. Oliveira will not stay until the end of the trial.”

“We could try to create a smokescreen to create doubt. But we, the families, know what happened and we know that Mrs. Oliveira is guilty of the acts with which she is accused. The sanction of Mrs. Oliveira will not be never commensurate with the pain or handicap that is experienced, suffered by the victims and their families, but at least symbolically it means something.concludes Me Marie Mescam.