More than seven years after the terrible accident of the collapsed balcony in Angers, which caused the death of four young people and injured 14 others in October 2016, the Angers Court of Appeal condemned this Tuesday the architect and the driver of construction work to suspended prison sentences.
The architect, found guilty of injuries and manslaughter, received a three-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 30,000 euros. The works manager was sentenced to a two-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 1,500 euros. Both men were acquitted at first instance.
A fall from the fourth floor
On October 15, 2016, a student evening was organized in an apartment located on the fourth floor of the “Le Surcouf” building, rue Maillé in Angers. Shortly before midnight, the balcony, then occupied by 18 young people, collapsed, taking with it the two balconies on the lower floors. Four young people died in the accident, fourteen others were injured.
Four successive assessments revealed the existence of serious defects in the balconies of this building dating from 1998. The experts had ruled out the hypothesis of an overload of the balcony, as well as inappropriate behavior of the guests on the evening of the tragedy.
The prosecutor contested the acquittals
On May 31, 2022, after four weeks of hearing, the Angers criminal court sentenced the boss of the construction company, the site manager and the representative of the Apave verification office to sentences ranging from 18 months to three years in prison for failings in the construction process.
The architect, Frédéric Rolland, and the works manager, Eric Morand, were acquitted by the court. These two acquittals were not to the taste of the civil parties, nor even of the Angers public prosecutor. The latter therefore had decided to appealleading to a new trial in the court of appeal.