Fatal accident last summer near Toulouse: the driver sentenced to 9 years in prison
Involved in an accident in which two people were killed, and a third was seriously injured on August 24, 2021 in Bourg-Saint-Bernard, near Toulouse, a driver compared this Thursday before the Toulouse criminal court. An audience on edge, where dignity prevailed, despite the pain.
“If I went back… I don’t even know why I took this vehicle. I really, really blame myself. When I learned the details, I myself was surprised by the person that I was that day.”
In the box of the criminal court, Mohamed displays the tunes of children and repeats his regrets. In the room, eyes do not leave this 36-year-old man. This evening of August 24, before returning to Castres where he lives, he stopped at a bakery in Quint-Fonsegrives. “The saleswoman found you weird, as if you found yourself under narcotics”, notes the president Didier Suc. “I had smoked the day before, or the day before in Paris, at a party…” When he got back behind the wheel of a Volkswagen Touran, “I had bought it for my mother”, he a dark.
“Crazy speed,” says a retiree he overtook in turns. A caregiver speaks of “incredible risk-taking”. Another witness says: “In the last bend, the two wheels of the car came off the road…” The president shells and waits for explanations that do not come. “Between the departure from Quint-Fonsegrives and the accident, 9 minutes passed when it normally takes twice that for this journey according to the investigations of the gendarmes. During the impact, your counter remained blocked at 107 km /h.” A sorry look in response. The diagram of the accident shows a point of impact very to the left, on the other roadway, despite the white line. “The driver was traveling at 70 km / h. You gave her no chance to avoid the collision”, further details the president.
In the room, hands are clenched, tears are flowing. Corentin and Baptiste lost their mother, Sophie, and their sister Pauline in the accident. Their second sister, Camille, who turned 11 on August 25, is trying to recover from multiple traumas and fractures. 80 days of total incapacity “and nightmares that invade him”, warns Corentin, his older brother. His testimony, at the bar, freezes the room. Like her mother’s best friend. “This August 24, I spent a wonderful day with my two children, my best friend, Sophie and Pauline, my goddaughter and Camille, said this woman, looking at the defendant. In the evening, you deprived me of my life. My children too. Everyone.” A family in the broad sense to which Me Marie Bellen-Rotger, lawyer of the family, pays tribute. “For the dignity they all display since this tragedy.”
The prosecutor: “No mitigating circumstances”
Mohamed would like to disappear. The prosecutor finds “no extenuating circumstances”. “All the offenses committed: no license, no insurance, under narcotics, unsuitable speed… He had already been convicted (six convictions) for all these offences. His license has already been canceled twice. The offenses slip on him “. He requires the maximum penalty: 10 years in prison, a ban on driving and retaking his license for 5 years.
Not easy to stand up in defense after these debates and such an indictment. Me Assia Derbali confronts, seeks “to humanize those who know their faults, their errors and whose apologies are sincere”. The lawyer calls for “accompaniment, a partly suspended sentence to protect him, and society.”
The deliberation was short. The driver was sentenced to 9 years in prison, a 5-year license ban, a 5-year ban on driving a motor vehicle and a €500 fine. Compensation for victims will be the subject of a specific hearing.