Wen C. bought his electric scooter for 1850 euros in March 2019. A month later, the acquisition supposed to make his life easier to get to work has become a machine of misfortune.
On the handlebars of his two-wheeled machine, the then 21-year-old boy crashed into an old man crossing the street.
The victim died two days later.
For this fatal accident, which occurred on rue Victor-Hugo in Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine) on April 12, 2019, Wen C. was sentenced this Monday by the Nanterre criminal court to a sentence of eighteen months of conditional sentence.
At the time, the affair had deeply moved: following it, several communes of Hauts-de-Seine had banned self-service scooters from their territory while the public authorities got down to regulation.
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Overwhelmed, obviously still marked, Wen C. did not shy away from the bar.
This day of April 2019, at the end of the afternoon, he joined, from his home in Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), the restaurant that employs him in western Paris.
And it was he who first paid the price for a collision.
“On the way, I passed another person on a scooter.
He zigzagged and blocked my way, unrolling this young Chinese through an interpreter.
I crossed an intersection passing between two cars.
The other one, next to me, hit me and I fell head first on the body of a car.
I got up, there was no big damage on my scooter.
"
"Unfortunately, I did not control my speed"
But Wen C. let the anger dominate him.
“When I saw this man again after two or three intersections, suddenly the anger rose.
I wanted to approach him.
Unfortunately, I did not control my speed, I was surely going too fast.
"
At these last words, Wen C. sobs.
Then when he resumes his story, tears choke his voice.
“When I realized that I had hit this person, I was also on the ground.
I saw blood.
He was an old man, like my grandfather.
Ibrahima Y., an 82-year-old man with a frail figure, lay lifeless on the road.
In the fall, his head hit the curb violently, causing a fatal head injury.
"When incivility in public space turns into drama"
If the sincerity of Wen C. is obvious, the young man however avoids a sequence that did not escape the prosecutor.
"A few seconds before impact, you tried to kick the other person on the scooter sideways," said the magistrate, relying on the images from the city's surveillance cameras.
Obviously, that's what diverted your attention… When incivility in public space turns into drama, there is only one step.
You have crossed it.
"
In her requisitions, supported by case law, the prosecutor endeavored to demonstrate that the scooter is indeed "a land motor vehicle".
Even though the machine did not officially fall into this category at the time of the accident.
This was the case only after publication of a decree in October 2019.
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"It took this accident for things to change," pointed out the lawyer for the victim's family, Me Philippe Ruimy.
Which makes him say, without excusing it, that Wen C. "is not the only culprit".
“Scooters were a lawless area.
"
"The stake is so important that the legislator intervened"
"This drama shows the difficulty of living together on the road," detailed the prosecutor.
Ten years ago, it was pretty binary.
There were pedestrians on the sidewalk, cars on the road.
Today, between cars, bicycles, scooters, skateboarders on sidewalks, Segways, scooters, getting around is complicated, pedestrians are even more vulnerable.
The stake is so important that the legislator intervened.
"
This decree of October 2019 qualifies scooters and other hoverboards as motorized personal transport vehicles.
And therefore imposes a speed not to be exceeded, i.e. 25 km / h, the ban on driving on sidewalks or on roads with an authorized speed greater than 50 km / h.
"We can regret that the legislator did not go further by imposing a certificate of aptitude for driving a scooter", slipped the prosecutor in her requisitions.
She had asked for a 24-month suspended sentence.
“I don't want to add anything
(Editor's note: by not requiring firm imprisonment)
.
Monsieur will have to live with the death of the victim.
"
"There is 40% head trauma in injuries caused by scooters"
Dr Emmanuel Dahan, orthopedic surgeon.
DR
More and more users of scooters and pedestrians run over by these two-wheelers in emergencies.
At the Ambroise-Paré (AP-HP) hospital in Boulogne (Hauts-de-Seine), where Dr. Emmanuel Dahan, orthopedic surgeon, works, two or three injured people are operated on each week.
What are the most common injuries caused by electric scooter accidents?
Dr Emmanuel Dahan.
There are 40% of head trauma in injuries due to scooters, but also fractures, wounds for which patients stay in the emergency room.
Every week, in our hospital, we see at least two to three people who are victims of scooter accidents who need to be operated on.
Most are between thirty and forty years old.
Who are the main victims?
We have both, pedestrians and scooter riders.
There are as many men as there are women, from 25 to 60 years old.
For older people, who are more pedestrians hit by scooters, we see fractures of the neck of the femur.
Can the injuries be heavy?
These are fairly large high-energy fractures, comparable to those from road accidents.
You can have serious lesions, with lesions on the cartilage.
What advice would you give to scooter users?
As studies show that there is 40% head trauma, a helmet is essential equipment.
Of course, you have to respect the Highway Code and it is very useful, when you take a self-service scooter, to check its working condition, in particular that the brakes are working properly.