On August 21, Adam, 9, was struck by a motorist in Montpellier (Hérault). He died a few days later from his injuries. The driver is suspected of having driven under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Since then, his parents have fought so that these tragedies no longer fall under manslaughter, but intentional homicide. That it is no longer a crime, as it is today, but a crime. Punished by a much harsher sentence.
“We consider that the car is a weapon by destination, if it is not used correctly, with aggravating circumstances, such as the use of alcohol or drugs,” says Abdelhak, Adam’s father. We want to make things happen. We had long wanted to engage in this fight. Unfortunately, it is a drama that brought us there. “When a driver takes the road, drunk or drugged, he must” assume the consequences “, continues the Montpellier.
36,000 signatures collected
This has been the fight, for years, of the Charlotte Mathieu Adam association. It was created after Charlotte’s death on December 22, 2012, in Montpellier. This 18-year-old student died, hit by a car. The driver in question, a Montpellier driver whose driving license had been canceled, was drunk at the time of the accident. He was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment.
The objective of this association of victims of road violence is “to make justice understand that road crime which takes the lives of innocent people can no longer be considered a simple offense.” We are fighting so that these facts are considered a specific criminal offense and that, pending a new law, the drivers are referred to an assize court for willful violence resulting in death without intention to give it with a weapon, the car. A petition, relayed by the association, “so that the responsibility of drivers is no longer minimized”, gathered more than 36,000 signatures on the Internet.
“There is a deadly determinism”
For Laëtitia Leroy, lawyer for Adam’s parents, the law must change. This summer, she asked the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, to open a parliamentary committee to reflect on this subject. But that this type of fact is one day a deliberate homicide, “it seems to me compromised”, however, explains the lawyer. Because the drivers, although they took the road when their condition did not allow them, did not, a priori, seek to kill. “On the other hand, we could define an offense which would consist in saying that there was such negligence and such recklessness that this result, in fine, was as sought-after. That there is a deadly determinism, ”she notes. An offense, when there are aggravating circumstances, which would fall under the crime.
On Monday, before the Montpellier Court of Appeal, the lawyer intervened in another, similar case: the death of Laurena, fatally struck in February 2019 in Lattes by a drunk motorist, and positive for cannabis and cocaine. At first instance, she was sentenced to 5 years in prison, including one year suspended. The prosecution had appealed. The court’s decision will be released on December 6.