Justice considered that one of the former city councilors of this commune of Hérault had not established a “safeguard plan” for a communal campsite located in a flood zone. The other, in post at the time of the bad weather, was condemned for “not having evacuated the campsite”.
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Can a mayor be held responsible for the death of four people and the injuries of eleven others due to a flood? Yes, answers the correctional court of Béziers (Hérault). Two ex-ediles of Lamalou-les-Bains were condemned, Friday, May 27, a one-year suspended prison sentence for “homicide” and “involuntary injury”, eight years after floods which claimed several victims in this spa town.
Mayor from 1983 to March 2014, Marcel Roque73, was sentenced for failing to establish “a backup plan” and not have “respected the training of personnel provided for by the texts”, explained the president of the court, Nadège Larochette. Philippe Tailland, also 73, in office at the time of the tragedy in September 2014, was sentenced for “not having evacuated the campsite” located in the southern Cévennes.
Everyone should to pay 15 000 euros to all the civil parties. They are also permanently banned from holding public office.
“You both created and helped create the September drama [2014] by not applying the precautionary principles”, had denounced Deputy District Attorney David Durant. In his requisitions of Friday April 1, he had claimed two years in prison suspended against Marcel Roques and 18 months suspended against Philippe Tailland.
On the night of September 17 to 18, 2014, floods caused a violent rise in the Bitoulet River, a tributary of the Orb, causing the death of a couple, a woman and her daughter. The municipal campground was about three meters above the watercourse, and was partly in a flood zone, as was a residence and neighboring subdivisions. Two floods had already submerged it in 1992 and 1996, without the town hall taking action thereafter.