A motorist, who fatally hit a policewoman in 2018, while driving too fast and under the influence of narcotics, including cocaine, was sentenced Thursday, October 28 to five years in prison, including a one-year probationary period, by the court of Albi.
Read alsoDrugs and driving3.
What sanctions?
At the time, the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, had mentioned
"a terrible injustice"
during the tribute paid to this 49-year-old peacekeeper, Marlène Castang, hit by a 4x4 while she was securing the site of an accident on the Albi bypass, in the early morning of October 15, 2018.
"The death of your colleague Marlène Castang is a terrible injustice"
, he declared, denouncing the fact that she was the victim of 'a
"reckless driver driving at high speed under the influence of narcotics"
.
Thursday evening, the judge also issued a warrant of committal against the accused, now 33 years old, citing a high risk of repeat offenses. The man, who admitted to having taken cocaine,
"about twenty rails the day before the accident"
, but disputed his excessive speed, was appearing for manslaughter, with aggravating circumstances, as well as for injuries caused to another police officer.
Marlène Castang had been thrown by the 4x4 against the recovery truck dispatched to the site for the first accident.
One of his colleagues had narrowly avoided the vehicle, which the accused had borrowed without authorization from his boss and in which had been found methamphetamines, ecstasy and the necessary to inject cocaine.
Read also21% of fatal road accidents linked to drugs
Prosecutor Mathieu Colomar denounced
"the transgressive personality"
of the defendant,
"already sentenced five times for driving without a license, then (...) for five speeding tickets"
, in addition to his addiction problems. The lawyer of the family of the policewoman, Me Laurent Boguet, abounded in the same direction, estimating that the defendant
lived this situation in another dimension, without seeing the flashing lights, nor the police officers in reflective vests, nor the warnings of all vehicles. "
Marlène Castang had returned in 2011 to Albi, where she was from, after having worked at the Paris police headquarters and then in public security in Marseille.
She received the rank of captain posthumously, then was elevated to the rank of Knight of the Order of Merit and decorated with the Police Medal.
