It was a party that turned into a tragedy. Last August, in the Hautes-Pyrénées, a 26-year-old young woman fell in the middle of the night with her two-year-old daughter in a stroller in the Bouès, a river which crosses Villembits where a village festival was taking place. Before the accident, which occurred in the middle of the night, the mother was under the influence of cannabis and alcohol.
Despite the intervention of several people, the child could not be rescued in time, and died of drowning, due to the current and the depth of the river. Firefighters and police, dispatched to the scene, were unable to revive her.
Three individuals implicated
The mother was summoned to the Tarbes court on Tuesday for manslaughter, as were the mayor and the president of the village festival committee. The reason: strong alcohol had been served at the party, which was prohibited; and the celebration was held outside, near the river, contrary to what was planned.
The president of the festival committee assured Tuesday that he had not been informed of the sale of strong alcohol. As for the mayor, he said he expressed his disagreement when he learned that the party would take place outside, without daring to cancel it.
The deputy prosecutor requested twelve months suspended prison sentence for the mother and ten months suspended prison sentence for each of the two other defendants. The court will announce its decision on January 23.