A drama in the middle of the farmers’ protest movement. “I have just learned that a road accident happened in Ariège, in Pamiers” north of Foix, announced the president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, Tuesday January 23 on RMC. “In the particular moment that agriculture is going through, this kind of tragedy is difficult to live with,” did he declare, as sector mobilization gains momentum. On Tuesday, actions were notably announced in Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), Beauvais (Oise), Agen (Lot-et-Garonne) and Carbonne (Haute-Garonne).
Franceinfo takes stock of what we know about this accident.
A vehicle hit a wall of straw bales
At 5:45 a.m. Tuesday morning, “a serious traffic accident occurred in the town of Pamiers”, on the RN 20, the Ariège prefecture announced in a press release. The accident took place “at the height of the RD 119 bridge, on the scene of the agricultural demonstration”. During a press conference late Tuesday morning, the prefect of Ariège, Simon Bertoux, assured that the safety device installed around the dam “was perfectly compliant”. He also emphasized that the occupation of the road was done within the framework of a “declared demonstration”.
A car coming from Toulouse and heading towards Andorra “took national road 20, despite the system put in place to prohibit access”, Olivier Mouysset, public prosecutor of Foix, said Tuesday morning in a press release. “While traveling on the double track, their vehicle collided, in the middle of the night, and with no public lighting nearby, a wall of straw bales, erected all the way up to the bridge, and while this straw wall was covered with ‘a big black tarpaulin.’ Some protestors “restored” behind this big wall of straw.
The car hit three people, leaving one dead and two seriously injured. “before ending his race against the trailer of a tractor”. “In view of the very first elements of the investigation, which has barely begun, the facts in question do not appear to be of an intentional nature,” specifies the Foix public prosecutor’s office.
The prefect and sub-prefect of Pamiers went to the scene of the tragedy. According to the prefecture, 35 firefighters, 13 police officers and 20 gendarmes “are mobilized”, And “a departmental operational center is activated in the Ariège prefecture. A psychological unit has been set up. According to France Bleu Occitanie, witnesses to the accident are very shocked. The barrier was gradually lifted.
Farmer killed, husband and daughter injured
The victim, who died on the spot, was around thirty years old, according to the public prosecutor. Her husband, in his forties, “is seriously injured and was taken to hospital”, specifies this same source. Their 14-year-old daughter was also injured in the accident. His condition is judged “very worrying”, according to Simon Bertoux, and she was airlifted to the Toulouse hospital center.
A farmer, the victim was a member of the FNSEA, according to Arnaud Rousseau. The thirty-year-old was a Limousin cow breeder and seed corn producer in Saint-Felix-de-Tournegat, near Pamiers. A medical-psychological emergency unit has been set up to support the family’s loved ones.
People on board the vehicle in police custody
An investigation has been opened “in flagrante delicto of aggravated manslaughter and aggravated wounding”, specifies the prosecution in its press release. The Pamiers police station is responsible for this investigation.
The three people in the vehicle which hit the wall of straw bales, a couple and one of their friends, were taken into police custody. These people of Armenian nationality were not known to the justice services. Two of them were slightly injured and had to be hospitalized, added Simon Bertoux. The tests did not detect any alcohol consumption or narcotics use.
At this stage of the investigation, “at this time we cannot explain the reasons which led the vehicle to bypass a set of elements which prevented access to this expressway”, declared the prefect of Ariège, ensuring that “this ban was well materialized”.
Many political reactions
The Ministry of Agriculture said that the minister and his team were “in close contact with the Ariège prefecture to find out the exact circumstances of the accident.” “Our Nation is shocked and united”, reacted on X Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. The accident is a “drama that upsets us all”declared Emmanuel Macron on the social network, asking the government to provide “concrete solutions” to the difficulties of farmers.
At the National Assembly, communist deputy André Chassaigne asked for a minute of silence to be respected on Tuesday in tribute to the killed farmer. “It is unacceptable, in a country like ours, for a person to die because they are fighting to be able to live with dignity from their work,” continued the president of the LFI group in the National Assembly, Mathilde Panot.
“It’s a tragedy, my thoughts go first to this woman who died,” declared in turn on franceinfo Gérard Larcher, the president of the Senate. “Faced with this tragedy, it is important that answers be provided to the agricultural world very quickly”he added. “It is with deep sadness that we learn of the death of a woman, struck down by a car in Pamiers, during a farmers’ demonstration,” reacted for his part on X Marine Le Pen, president of the National Rally group in the National Assembly.