Five years in prison, including three years suspended, were requested on Tuesday against the driver of the truck tried for homicide and involuntary injuries after a dramatic collision with a school bus in Rochefort, killing six teenagers, in February 2016.
Before the La Rochelle Criminal Court, the prosecutor Clément Incerti asked for the strongest sentence, accompanied by a suspended sentence, thus allowing the defendant to request a sentence adjustment for the two years firm, in order to “take into account his personality “. “He is responsible for a very serious accident, he is not murderous”, justified the prosecutor.
At the trial of the car drama in Rochefort (Charente-Maritime), where six teenagers died on February 11, 2016, the civil parties and their lawyers denounced on Tuesday “the memory lapses” of the driver of the truck who presented for the first time his “regrets”. “Tanguy had his life ahead of him and he was my only son. You have ruined my life Mr. Saurel, memory lapses are fine for 5 minutes”. Before the criminal court of La Rochelle, Isabelle Bouteille, who lost her 15-year-old boy, expressed her frustration at the statements of the driver of the truck, Mathieu Saurel, tried for “homicides and involuntary injuries”.
For Me Stéphane Ferry who defends three families, “the black hole goes badly”. “The victims would have liked to hear this error with appalling consequences recognized”, he said at the start of the pleadings of the civil parties, numbering 42.
“Black holes, we can’t hear it”
Mathieu Saurel was driving the dump truck which had literally sheared the side of a school bus arriving in the opposite direction. The cause of the impact was the truck’s drop side, this metal part holding the load in place on the side, which had been left open in a horizontal position at 90 degrees. “The black holes, we can’t hear it, there is one obvious thing that is clear: you left with the tailgate open,” insisted Me Brice Giret, another civil party lawyer.
Since Monday, the 29-year-old defendant has half-acknowledged, his face twisted by tears, his recklessness, while evoking this “black hole” between his departure from the warehouse of his ex-employer Eiffage and the collision. “The black hole is that I don’t remember,” explained the young man on Tuesday, yet described as very conscientious. “For me, it was not open, but the testimonies and expertise prove the opposite”, admitted the ex-driver, today an order picker.
“This case will haunt me all my life like the others here. I want to express my deepest regrets to the families and the injured,” he added. Six teenagers aged 15 to 18 were killed and two other young people seriously injured in this accident which traumatized the region. Some families had not been able to see the body of their child. “Some were beheaded, it must be said,” said Me Stéphane Ferry.