The Marseille Criminal Court recognized the fault of Nadine Oliveira by crossing the level crossing, which led to a shock with a TER and the death of six children on December 14, 2017.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
did the school care driver “faulte” this day in December 2017, by engaging in the crossing of Millas (Pyrénées-Orientales), generating a collision with a TER and costing life to Six children? Yes, judged the Marseille Criminal Court – the only city with Paris to welcome a pole specializing in collective accidents. Nadine Oliveira, 53, was sentenced to five years in prison, including four suspended, Friday, November 18.
The majority of the trial took place in the absence of the accused, still hospitalized in psychiatry. On September 22, barely four days after the opening of her trial for homicides and involuntary injuries, Nadine Oliveira, 53, had been “struck down”, in the words of one of her lawyers. Taken of an irrepressible tears crisis, she had ended up being evacuated by the firefighters.
hear the heartbreaking stories of some of the 17 teenagers injured in this drama, on December 14, 2017, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, “affected” it a lot: for the first time, it visualized children’s injuries, “C ‘was as if reality arose, when so far, all of this remained very theoretical for her, “commented her lawyer, M e Jean Codognès. Absent from the last two weeks of her trial, Ms. Oliveira, the only defendant in this file, was first admitted to cardiology, before joining a psychiatric hospital in Marseille.
His lawyer hoped for a relaxation, but the prosecutor Michel Sastre had requested a sentence of five years’ imprisonment, including four probationary suspended, accompanied by care and compensation obligations for victims. He had also asked for the cancellation of his tourism driving licenses and passenger transport, as well as a final ban on exercising a professional activity in connection with children.
“denial”, ” lack of empathy “and” defense mechanism “
Because for the representative of the public prosecutor, this “tragedy” is the result of a “fault” of the driver, due to her inattention and her imprudence. Before the drama, Nadine Oliveira had borrowed this level at N.25 level almost 400 times, and she had never seen it closed. During the investigation as at the hearing, she always argued that the barriers were open on the day of the drama, despite the expertise and certain testimonies, in particular that of a young girl seated at the front of the coach. She also mentioned a “black hole” at the time of the accident. But “the problem of the file is not whether the barrier was lifted or lowered, it is to have proof that it was lowered,” insists M e codognès.
Many civil parties have seen a form of denial in the driver: “It is not a question of contesting the suffering of Ms. Oliveira, but we would have liked that [this suffering] was not worn as a Standard of his innocence but as the recognition of his responsibility “, had thus pleaded M e Marie Mescam, representative of the families of a deceased child and seven survivors.
There is “a lack of empathy” in Mrs. Oliveira, but “I did not see in [her] attitude an absolute denial of what was committed”, had nuanced the prosecutor: she “says this That his brain considers to be reality “, so as not to sin completely. An analysis shared by one of the psychiatrists who came to testify at the helm. This denial corresponds to “an unconscious defense mechanism”, explained Françoise Grau-Espel, who had examined Ms. Oliveira only a month after the accident, in early 2018: “We cannot speak at all of lie or manipulation”.
For one of the young victims, today almost major and who has lost a leg in the accident, anyway, “the driver is already dead”: she is “imprisoned in herself”, had -It launched, by the voice of her lawyer.