A trial will take place in January 2024 in the case of the Orpea retirement home in Biot (Alpes-Maritimes), where three elderly people died in 2015 in devastating floods, the lawyers told AFP on Wednesday. of the different parties.
The hearing will take place over three days, from January 16 to 18, before the Grasse criminal court, said the advice, confirming information from
Nice-Matin
.
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Four defendants, three natural persons and a legal person, the company Orpea, are returned for involuntary homicides.
This is the mayor of the town at the time, Guilaine Debras, the person in charge of natural risks of the city and the director of the retirement home, who will also have to answer for endangering the lives of others. .
Orpea is sent back to court for manslaughter and endangering the lives of others.
Read alsoOrpea: behind the scenes of the rescue of the giant Ehpad by the State
The group, which has retirement homes but also specialized clinics, is present in 22 countries, has 72,000 employees and welcomes more than 255,000 patients and residents each year.
“
It is a satisfaction and a relief in the face of a long and complex procedure
”, reacted Me Philippe Soussi, the lawyer for one of the civil parties.
"
We are criticized for not having reacted while indicating that the municipal police and the town hall did not warn us, that the sirens were broken and that the weather forecast did not predict floods", indicated Me Michel
. Valiergue, Orpea's lawyer, who is surprised by this referral to the court "
in view of an indirect causal link
".
"
We are criticized for not having reacted while indicating that the municipal police and the town hall did not warn us, that the sirens were broken and that the weather report did not predict any floods
"
Me Michel Valiergue, Orpea's lawyer
On October 3, 2015, a wave of water and mud swept through a valley and invaded through all the openings the ground floor of the Clos Saint-Grégoire retirement home, at the foot of the medieval village of Biot.
The establishment, close to a rainwater drainage channel and which had already experienced two floods, has since been closed.
During the flood, around twenty residents had been evacuated from the ground floor by two employees, but three women, aged 82, 91 and 94, had drowned.
Read also“One day it will be our turn to go to a retirement home, we have to fight!”: the daughter of a resident of an Ehpad Orpea recounts her battle
The deadly deluge that fell in one evening on the Côte d'Azur had killed 20 people in total.
Not far from the retirement home, a 62-year-old Briton had drowned in a campsite in Antibes, totally devastated by the sudden flooding of the Brague, a coastal river.
The heaviest price had been paid by the town of Mandelieu-la-Napoule, where the emergency services had found the bodies of eight people in the underground car parks of several nearby residences.
The victims had gone to retrieve their vehicle.
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