Eight cyclists on the ground, all injured. Among them, three teenagers are seriously affected. On Saturday January 21, the release of a Côtes-d’Armor bike club turned tragic. Hit by a motorist, eight of the thirteen teenagers had ended up on the ground. The driver of the German coupé had not stopped and had fled. A month after the accident, the 31-year-old motorist was tried by the Saint-Brieuc criminal court. Already convicted four times for driving while intoxicated, the defendant was sentenced to three years in prison, including ten months suspended. He will have the obligation to treat himself and compensate his victims.
This January afternoon, the man was driving with a blood alcohol level of around 2.7 grams per liter of blood, according to estimates by the gendarmes. After the accident, the defendant fled. The gendarmes had found him asleep in his car in a road, about three kilometers from the accident. Refusing the alcohol test, the driver had been registered at 0.3 grams of alcohol in the blood the next morning, more than twelve hours after the shock. He had been remanded in custody.
His vehicle was confiscated
“I had a moment of bewilderment but at no time did I want to hit them,” defended the father of two children. He said he drank “three beers in the morning” and “slept late the day before” the accident. “I’ve been drinking for four years, every other weekend, when I’m not babysitting,” he said. His vehicle was confiscated, his license canceled and he is prohibited from returning to it for a period of three years.