Her name was Sistine. She had just celebrated her 11th birthday. And, like every day, she walked from her home (in the 16th arrondissement) to the Notre-Dame-des-Oiseaux college where she was educated in the 6th grade. The girl died on Monday shortly after 8 a.m. run over by a heavyweight at the corner of rue la Fontaine and rue George-Sand which it crossed via the pedestrian crossing.
The blind spot problem on trucks
The investigation opened by the judicial processing service for accidents at the prefecture of police is far from over. But the first elements collected after the accident seem to indicate that the schoolgirl was a victim of the problem of "blind spot" on heavy goods vehicles. The driver - whose alcohol and toxicology tests turned out to be negative - who was turning on his right, at the green light, would not have seen the little girl who crossed the street perpendicular, also green for pedestrians.
"We all come on foot ... or by scooter"
This road drama, which took place in front of several witnesses in an area with many schools, plunged the entire neighborhood of the village of Auteuil in dismay. In the private school group Notre-Dame-des-Oiseaux (which brings together several hundred students from primary to high school) where the little victim went, the day on Tuesday began with a minute of silence for all classes. "I didn't know her personally. But we all talked about it among ourselves. We all come on foot… or on a scooter, ”commented a student in 5th grade, tears in her eyes.
500 m from there, at the scene of the accident, residents, parents of pupils or not, followed one another all day long to place a white rose or small candles on the sidewalk. A tribute to the little girl who is thrown between emotion, questioning… and anger. “We keep repeating to our children that they only pass on pedestrian crossings and when the traffic light is green. But from what I understood, this is exactly what this poor kid had done, ”comments a mother after hanging a flower on the edge of rue George-Sand.
A danger already signaled
"The danger of this blind crossroads has been reported several times to the town hall by all the parents in the neighborhood," continues Séverine, without letting go of her daughter's hand after returning from nursery school. "It was useless. Now things will no doubt finally move. But, unfortunately, too late for these girls, ”she concludes.
"Since 2017, I have alerted the road management of the central town hall and the police prefecture on several occasions to the danger of traffic on all of rue Jean-de-la-Fontaine," recalls Danièle Giazzi, mayor (LR) of the 16th century. "This drama tragically confirms my fears," she wrote in the letter she sent on Monday to the mayor of Paris and the prefect of police to request a general safety audit of the street in question and the realization in " the shortest possible time ”of adequate security arrangements.
Pedestrians, the first victims of the road in the capital
Asked, the prefecture of police has not yet indicated whether a specific accident was found in the area. "The City, in conjunction with the police prefecture, will do everything to ensure that this tragedy does not happen again", we simply pointed out on the side of the City Hall, without specifying any road improvements to be installed in this part of the sixteenth.
Proof of the enormous emotion that the drama aroused in the neighborhood: the petition to improve "road safety for children of the 16th century" that Vanessa Edberg - a lawyer domiciled in Auteuil, mother of two children 2 and 3 years old, and herself the victim of an accident when she was 11 years old - launched on change.org, on Monday, collected nearly 3,000 signatures in less than 24 hours.
It must be said that pedestrians are the first victims of the road in the capital. Of the 34 people killed last year, 16 (or 47% of the total) were pedestrians. And mostly elderly people ... or children.