A school coach had been sheared in 2016 by the lateral metal wall of a dump truck remaining at 90 degrees. Six teenagers had been killed. The Eiffage company, owner of the truck, has benefited from a non-place.
Le Monde with AFP
Six teens were killed in 2016 in the accident of their school coach, in Rochefort (Charente-Maritime). In the trial that was to shed light on the responsibility of the company Eiffage, owner of the dump truck involved in the accident, and its driver, the company benefited from a non-place and the driver was returned Given justice, we learned from the prosecution, Friday, November 5th.
This decision of the investigating judges is consistent with the parquet floor in September, said the Prosecutor of the Republic of La Rochelle, Laurent Zuchowicz, in a statement. Subject to appeal, the trial will be held from 28 to 30 March 2022 before the correctional court of this city, has it announced.
The company EIFFAGE, indicted at the end of 2020 for involuntary homicides, is the owner of the dump truck whose ridele (rear or side metal wall now in place the load) had moved the coach. But, according to the Prosecutor, “the legislation in force at the time of the facts did not allow to characterize sufficiently the offenses”. Indeed, at the time, no norm imposed on trucks with an alert system that would have warned the driver that the truck’s curtain had remained open. The latter is, on the other hand, returned for provoking the death of six people “by clumsiness, imprudence, inattention, negligence or failure to a prudence or security obligation”.
“Unusual and dangerous” position of the RIDELLE
This drama has been one of the most serious accidents of transport of children in France since that of Beaune in 1982, who had made 53 dead (including 44 children).
On February 11, 2016 in the morning, in Rochefort, while it was still night and that he drank, the coach had crossed the road of a dump truck of a warehouse Eiffage at 800 meters away .
The sidewall had been sheared by the open truck side, killing six of the fifteen teens on board, five high school students and a college student. Two others had been wounded. A few days after the accident, the 23-year-old driver had been indicted for involuntary homicides and injuries, and left out under judicial control.
Technical investigations, including the reconstitution of the facts, had focused on this lateral side. Depending on the parquet, it was open at 90 degrees at the time of the collision, an “unusual and dangerous” position. Not before, a motorist had to make a gap to avoid it.