A 19-year-old young man died on Tuesday evening August 16 in Marseille after losing control of his motorcycle and hitting a pole while doing an urban rodeo, we learned this Wednesday from police sources.
The facts occurred around 9:20 p.m. on Boulevard de la Millière, in the 11th arrondissement of Marseille, while the victim, wearing a helmet, was doing a rearwheel in front of a friend with his new motorcycle, a Suzuki GSX-R 750. But the young man lost his balance, first hitting the sidewalk and then a pole, several police sources told
Le Figaro
.
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The driver, who was driving without a license or insurance, was known to the police for three traffic offences, according to AFP.
“To say that this is an urban rodeo is a bit risky,
tempers a police source
.
We are not in the classic pattern of rodeo, which is rather done in motocross or even scooter and whose goal is to provoke the police and lead to a pursuit.
»
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On August 8, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced from Marseille an intensification of controls throughout France against people performing urban rodeos, acts
"often criminals who come to kill, who come to very seriously injure"
.
Since that date, more than 150 scooters and motorcycles have been seized during more than 3,000 police and gendarmerie operations, said the Beauvau host on Tuesday on Twitter, assuring that, from this Wednesday,
“each police station would carry out at least three anti-rodeo operations a day”
.
On August 5, a seven-year-old child was seriously injured during an urban rodeo in Pontoise (Val-d'Oise).
The 18-year-old biker had first fled before going to the police station the next day.
He has since been charged and imprisoned.
On June 8, a 19-year-old young man lost his life after being hit by a motorcycle during an urban rodeo in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine).
A 2018 law strengthening penalties against perpetrators of motorized rodeos provides for penalties of up to 5 years in prison.