Six years after the Rochefort bus drama which caused the death of six teenagers on February 11, 2016, the trial opened on Monday March 28 in the morning before the La Rochelle criminal court where the driver of a dump truck is tried alone for "
homicides and involuntary injuries
".
With 42 civil parties, numerous journalists and twelve lawyers, the justice system had to deploy an unprecedented organization to "
ensure the serenity of the debates
" of this extraordinary trial for the region by its dimensions.
Read alsoBus accident in Rochefort in 2016: Eiffage indicted for manslaughter
Until Wednesday, the court will dive back into the chronology of one of the most serious child transport accidents in France since that of Beaune in 1982 (53 dead including 44 children).
"
The trial is like mourning, we need it to move on... Technically, we know what happened, the reasons for this tragedy, but people need to know, to talk
," said before the opening of the trial the lawyer of two survivors, Me Hervé Blanché, also mayor LR of Rochefort.
In the early morning of February 11, 2016, a dump truck from the construction company Eiffage had literally sheared over its entire length a bus arriving in the opposite direction, with fifteen teenagers on board.
In question, the tailboard of the truck, which had remained open in a horizontal position at 90 degrees, transforming the vehicle into a giant blade.
The truck driver had only seen her at the last moment.
Six teenagers, 5 high school students and 1 college student, aged 15 to 19, attending school 25 km away, were killed and two seriously injured.
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The truck driver, who was 23 at the time of the incident, Mathieu Saurel, faces 5 years in prison and a 75,000 euro fine.
He is judged alone without his ex-employer Eiffage, indicted at the end of 2020, but who benefited from a dismissal confirmed on appeal in February, to the chagrin of certain civil parties.
"
It's a terrible tragedy for everyone, on both sides of the bar
," said Me Thierry Sagardoytho, the defendant's lawyer, who climbed the steps leading to the courtroom in tears.
In front of the court, black shirt and jeans, it is also in tears that the driver, now 29 years old, listened to the facts of which he is accused.
The deliberation is expected in a few weeks.
