A farmer was killed and her husband and daughter were seriously injured after they were run over at dawn on Tuesday January 23 at a farmers’ roadblock in Ariège. In a press release early Tuesday morning, the Ariège prefecture specified that the accident occurred at 5:45 a.m. “ at the height of the RD 119 bridge » has Pamiers, “at the scene of the agricultural event”.
According to a police source, a “car crashed into the dam for an unknown reason”. The dead person, Alexandra Sonac, raised, with her husband, dairy cows and cultivated corn in the village of Saint-Félix-de-Tournegat (Ariège). Her partner of 40 years, “seriously” injured, and their teenage daughter, “in critical condition”are still hospitalized, according to the Foix prosecutor’s office.
A judicial investigation has been opened for aggravated manslaughter and aggravated injuries, announced the Foix prosecutor, Olivier Mouysset, in a press release. The three occupants of the car – a man and two women of Armenian nationality – were taken into police custody as part of the open investigation. According to a source close to the AFP investigation, the three occupants are subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF), after having had their asylum request rejected.
“No more dams in Ariège”
For now, the first elements collected allow the prosecution to affirm that “the facts in question do not appear to be intentional”. The vehicle, traveling in the Toulouse-Andorra direction, “took national road 20, despite the system put in place to prohibit access”. “While traveling on the dual carriageway, their vehicle collided, in the middle of the night, with no public lighting nearby, into a wall of straw bales. (…) The vehicle then struck three people, before ending its course against the trailer of a tractor”explained the prosecutor.
The prefect of Ariège, Simon Bertoux, announced the lifting of the dam “out of respect for the family”. “There will be no more dams in Ariège”, he continued during a press conference. The Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, is expected in Pamiers at the end of the afternoon, where he will be welcomed at the town hall before meeting representatives of the agricultural world.
“In the particular moment that agriculture is going through, this kind of tragedy is difficult to live with”, reacted the president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, on RMC. The accident “underlines the need for us to be perfectly organized, to ensure that we respect safety instructions, because what is important for us is to get our messages across”he also pointed out, calling “everyone calm and reason and ensure that this anger is expressed with respect for property and people”.
” Fed up “
The victim had been questioned the day before his death by the local Radio Transparence branch while she was present at the roadblock located on the RN20. Alexandra Sonac spoke in this interview about the difficulties of accessing water for irrigation and epizootic hemorrhagic disease (MEH), which affects her livestock.
“With the new disease, we have even more constraints, blood tests to be done in order to be able to sell…”she sighed. “We are one of the only professions for which we have products for which we do not decide the selling price”she lamented, denouncing a state of affairs “inadmissible”all generating a ” Fed up “ deep, “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.
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“I still have a family to feed. (…) I have two dependent children and we live for them. We don’t go on vacation, we don’t have days off, no fun with our children”she then regretted during this interview.
The mobilization will last “as long as it takes”, according to the FNSEA
Farmers have been demonstrating their discontent for several days, among other things through road blockages, to demand measures ranging from administrative simplification to faster compensation in the event of calamities.
The mobilization can last ” a day “, ” one week “ Or “the time it will take for the answers to be provided”warned Mr. Rousseau on Tuesday, who met the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, and the Minister of Agriculture on Monday evening in Matignon.
According to feedback from farmers in the field, there will be “blockages which will be spread out throughout the week, continuously or sporadically depending on the location”further clarified the head of the first French agricultural union, affirming that all departments will be concerned. “Things will be done in a sequenced manner to continue to show that this is not just a fever, but a fundamental issue”he added.
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