Lucas is almost 15 years old and is about to graduate from college in a few weeks. A feat when you know his background. For nearly ten years and a tragic accident in his schoolyard, the teenager had to be accompanied by multiple specialists to treat his cognitive disorders. The consequence of an afternoon of celebration which could have put an end to his very short life.
On June 22, 2013, the man who was barely 5 years old was running in the courtyard of the Rondines school, in Bourg-des-Comptes (Ille-et-Vilaine), when he was seriously injured. While playing with some buddies, spraying each other with squirt guns, Lucas walked down a small passageway between a booth set up for his school party and the fence. It was there that he hit a metal rod 40 cm long which protruded from the fence of the yard. The Spider-Man makeup he wore failed to protect him from the violence of the shock. The iron rod sank into his eye socket, slamming into his brain, piercing his head, leaving him lifeless on the ground, his face bleeding among a few dumbfounded comrades. Supported by firefighters, the boy was saved, at the cost of a passage in intensive care and then long months of hospitalization.
A faulty fence for years
Ten years after the facts, the teenager still suffers from troubles and slowness. Subject to vertigo, he will probably never be able to do the job of firefighter he dreamed of exercising. A victim of a head trauma, he has nevertheless seen his state of health improve from year to year thanks to extensive medical monitoring and the unfailing support of his parents. This Tuesday, the latter were on the bench of the Criminal Court of Rennes to attend the sentencing of an elected official found guilty of a serious fault.
Justice considered that the former youth assistant had not fulfilled her role as an elected official when she ignored a signed letter from the school principal requesting urgent intervention from the town hall to repair the faulty fence. Annick G., elected since 1983 in this town of 3,000 inhabitants, was given a six-month suspended prison sentence for “characteristic misconduct” resulting in injury. The judges considered that the elected official was aware of the dangerousness of the fence but had not acted.
On June 21, the day before the accident, a child had already been injured in the same place. And on June 18, four days before the tragedy, another student had been seriously affected by this faulty fence, prompting the director to write an alert letter. On June 19, the technical services intervened to “treat” the problem. As with each of the “seven to eight” alerts issued by the director during this year 2013, the agents had cut the excess wires.
Insufficient for this fence known to be defective to continue to be dangerous. The head of technical services had estimated that the fence was “not suitable” for a schoolyard. “The elected officials have not taken the measure of the danger. We are not on a simple negligence, because everyone knew. But you didn’t do anything, ”attacks Lucas’ family lawyer. “Managing the safety of the children is the role of the youth assistant. But you, you put the mail back in the bunk. You didn’t even go to the school, which is 220 meters from the town hall. That is a clear fault, ”continues Me Fabienne Michelet.
The new mayor acquitted by the court
The former assistant’s mouth twists when she answers. The hesitant voice, she tries to explain that it was not her role to manage these problems of faulty closing. “I knew that the technical services had intervened the day before. I thought the mail had been processed, ”she tries to explain without convincing the judges.
The court, on the other hand, heard the arguments of the current mayor of Bourg-des-Comptes. Indicted, the one who was then first deputy replaced the mayor of the town at the time, who had gone on vacation. The judges considered that Christian Leprêtre had not been informed of the imminent danger of this fence and released him. “I don’t think we’re talking to the right people. The requisitions are addressed more to the mayor of the time and to the director general of services than to the two people you have in front of you, ”continued to repeat the lawyer for the elected Me Frédéric Birrien. At the end of the verdict, the parents of Lucas seemed satisfied with the court decision. “I will never forget that day. It will remain etched in me,” testified Françoise. Lucas’ mother remembers the image of her son lying on the floor of the yard. And the months of hospitalization that followed. Ten years after this tragedy, she only wants one thing: “That it never happen again elsewhere. »