“Don’t forget to go eat.” In a friendly goodbye gesture, she greets Marie-Danielle, her “spiritual friend” who in return promises to come back “later”. Since Wednesday midnight, Sandrine Barthélémy has started a hunger strike, “put up like a soldier”, in order to denounce the slowness of justice and “fight” for her daughter. Johanna was barely 16 years old when she died, hit by a bus in Lyon while crossing Rue de la République to join her mother at lunchtime. It was January 16, 2019.
Sandrine sat on the steps of the opera, a few meters from the scene of the tragedy. “It’s not for nothing that I put myself there,” she justifies with a look. To hold on, she came with her banner that was “too small” for her liking, a “photo of Jojo”, a few cushions, water and a broth that she made for us to moisten. Her weight, which she will update regularly, is written on a sign: “61.5 kg”, she emphasizes.
An instruction that “tramples”
For almost five years, “it’s been stalling,” denounces the mother. The investigation is still in progress despite the accidentology expertise, obtained after a first hunger strike in 2021, and the videos included in the file. An “easy” file. But not the slightest trial date on the horizon. The reconstruction of the accident was refused because “deemed unnecessary”, she explains. “Because the death of a child is unnecessary? The justice system does not see me as a victim. Do you find that normal ? If my daughter had been that of Collomb [l’ancien maire de Lyon] or Macron, things would have been settled a long time ago. But I will go all the way for my daughter. She wasn’t a piece of cardboard that we hit. »
In the case, only the bus driver was indicted for manslaughter. Keolis, the operator of the public transport network, and the Lyon town hall were not prosecuted. So under a blazing sun, Sandrine Barthélémy lets her distress burst forth, assumes she is “acting naughty”, says she is “ready to draw her invisible Kalashnikov” but says she is “a nice girl in life”.
“Five years of waiting is far too long”
“It seems like Johanna is worth less than a can of paint,” she slips, pointing to the pedestrian crossing traced on the asphalt after the accident. “I took life. I fell into an abyss, each day, a little more. When I go back up the slope, there is always a wave to bring me back down. This driver killed my child but he returned to his life and his work. This is not normal,” denounces the caregiver, specifying “that I have never had an apology”: “But anyway, I don’t want it, it’s too late. »
Sylviane approaches in turn. It’s her sister who came to support her. “Five years of waiting is far too long,” she says. Initially, I was against this idea of the hunger strike because I already lost my niece. But she is right because it is inhumane. It is serious today to have to come and sit here to beg for justice. It’s serious that it has to come to this. » “If it doesn’t work, it will be a rope around your neck,” warns Sandrine.
In front of the two women, passers-by file past in a hurry, others stop to read the sign. “Courage to you, Madam,” encourages a mother, holding her 5-year-old little boy in her hand. “Justice takes a very long time, I know a relative who also lost her child,” she slips, inviting the little man to “give the lady a hug.” “He is autistic and nothing is done for him. I understand you,” she explains. And before leaving: “I will pray for you. »