For the assistant prosecutor of Rennes, it was not a question of a "fatality".
"Maëva C. should be in this world and her family would have nothing to do here," said Jean-Marie Blin on Tuesday, during the trial of two police officers who fatally hit this 21-year-old pedestrian on January 9 .
The two officials were in a canine brigade vehicle and were traveling on a bus lane, when, at 12:38 am, they had collided with two pedestrians crossing on a pedestrian crossing.
This Tuesday, the Rennes criminal court sentenced them to 12-month suspended prison terms and canceled the driving license of the police officer who was driving the vehicle.
"A fault of recklessness which is reproached"
Maëva, a 21-year-old school guide, was thrown several meters and died in hospital from her injuries.
Théo, a 23-year-old nurse from Rennes, had been seriously injured and had been prescribed 30 days of temporary incapacity for work (ITT).
"It is a fault of recklessness which is reproached" to the two defendants, insisted the prosecutor, however sweeping the hypothesis of "a scandalous abuse of their prerogatives".
He had requested 10-month suspended sentences against the driver of the vehicle (as well as a 10-month suspension of driving license) and an eight-month suspended sentence against his colleague.
The two policemen, Guillaume P., 49, and Francis V., 51, were driving between 67 km / h and 72 km / h in an unmarked car and had not seen the pedestrians crossing behind a bus , according to an expert cited at the hearing.
Called in to reinforce Villejean, a sensitive district of Rennes, they spoke of the urgency of the intervention.
“That there are only two colleagues in a neighborhood where we are not well received, yes, that justifies accelerating,” said Francis V., 30 years of career, at the helm.
A rotating beacon but no siren
In the request for reinforcement, "there is no mention of an emergency, a vital danger or a risk of riot", however noted the president of the court, recalling that he 'was about "a discovery of possible cannabis users" in "a hall of a building".
The deputy prosecutor considered that there was indeed "a relative but certain urgency" which justified breaking free from the Highway Code.
"They had the right to accelerate, to drive at 67 km / h, but not at the entrance of a protected passage hidden by two buses", he added however.
Police officers can in fact only derogate from the Highway Code in an emergency and "subject to not endangering other users".
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The magistrate also stressed that the police had activated their flashing light - which the witnesses did not see - but that they had not made use of their "two-tone" siren.
"The
two-tone
, we rarely put it at night because it wakes up everyone, it makes noise, it scares people", defended Francis V. "This horn was essential", estimated the deputy prosecutor.
The maximum penalty was five years imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros.
