The Eiffage company was dismissed, but the driver of the truck was sent to justice after the accident with a school bus, in which six teenagers were killed in 2016 in Rochefort (Charente-Maritime) , AFP learned Friday, November 5 from the prosecution.
Read also Coach accident in Rochefort in 2016: Eiffage indicted for manslaughter
This decision of the investigating judges is in accordance with the requisitions taken last September by the prosecution, said the prosecutor of La Rochelle Laurent Zuchowicz in a press release. Subject to appeal, the trial will be held from March 28 to 30, 2022 before the correctional court of this city, he announced.
The Eiffage company, indicted at the end of 2020 for manslaughter, is the owner of the dump truck whose side wall (rear metal wall holding the load in place) had gutted the bus.
But according to the prosecutor, "
the legislation in force at the time of the facts did not make it possible to sufficiently characterize the offenses
".
At the time, in fact, no standard required trucks to have an alert system that would have warned the driver that the side of the truck had remained open.
The dismissed driver
On the other hand, this driver was dismissed "
for having by clumsiness, recklessness, inattention, negligence or breach of an obligation of prudence or safety ...
" caused the death of six people. This tragedy was one of the most serious child transport accidents in France since the one in Beaune in 1982 (53 deaths including 44 children).
On the morning of February 11, 2016, in Rochefort, while it was still night and it was drizzling, the coach crossed at around 7.15 a.m. the road of a dump truck, which left an Eiffage warehouse 800 meters away .
The side of the coach had been sheared by the open side of the truck, killing six of the fifteen teenagers on board: five high school students and a middle school student.
Two others were injured.
A few days after the accident, the driver, then 23 years old, was indicted for manslaughter and unintentional injury, and left free under judicial supervision.
Read also Eiffage indicted for the death of six teenagers
The technical investigations, and in particular the reconstruction of the facts, had focused on this side wall.
According to the prosecution at the time, it was open at 90 degrees at the time of the collision, an "
unusual and dangerous
" position, and it has seemed for a while.
Shortly before, a motorist had to swerve to avoid it.
