A banquet table, 60 seats, first names and ages: Erwann, 19 years old; Romy, 14, etc. but none of them will come and sit down. As it has been doing for several years, the association Collective justice victims of the road symbolically marked, on Saturday, in Montpellier, the void left by the victims of the road. Sixty covers, for the sixty people who died on the roads in Hérault in 2022. A strong image, taken up locally in other cities in France, most often by families of victims of road violence. In Tours, Bagnols-sur-Cèze in the Gard, Arpajon-sur-Cère in the Cantal, Pertuis in the Vaucluse, or even, for the first time, in Bordeaux.
“We would like May 16 to become the national day in tribute to victims of the road, in the same way that there is a day for the victims of the attacks. Unfortunately, it seems that there is a hierarchy of victims, ”regrets Catherine Bourgoin the president of the association whose head office is in Puimisson, near Béziers, in the Hérault.
“We are asking for the creation of a road homicide offence”
During the presidential elections, the association questioned the candidates. Among his proposals, in addition to this national day, the use of strong awareness-raising work, or the creation of a road homicide offense “from the first aggravating circumstance”. The association also contacted the courts in order to obtain specific times during the trials, “this so that the relatives of victims do not wait for hours in the corridors next to those who are responsible for the death or serious injuries of their loved ones”, continues Catherine Bourgoin.
On June 3, a march is planned in Paris against “the trivialization of road tragedies and the message of impunity delivered by justice”.