A 24-year-old driver was sentenced to six months in prison without a warrant last Thursday by the Saint-Martin local court. The defendant was being tried for a serious traffic accident committed while speeding and under the influence of alcohol that could have turned into a tragedy.
"I don't remember anything, I had a blackout, I regret having taken the wheel, I apologize to the victims", judges are used to hearing mea culpas from those responsible for road accidents...
This was the case again on Thursday, October 10. RM, born June 4, 2000 in Saint-Martin, appeared before the Saint-Martin local court for unintentional injury, while driving with a blood alcohol level of 1,79 g, at an excessive speed given the circumstances committed on September 24, 2023 in Quartier d'Orléans. That evening, around 20 p.m., RM contacted CL, one of his best friends on the island, by phone to accompany him to McDo, on the Dutch side. The latter accepted and waited near the BO for RM to arrive, returning from a seemingly well-watered sea trip. RM arrived and got his girlfriend into his Pick-Up. The latter quickly realized that her friend was not in his normal state. He swerved repeatedly throughout the journey and drove faster and faster. His passenger gets scared and asks him to slow down. She wants to take the wheel. RM turns a deaf ear and continues to take reckless risks. He drives at nearly 120 km/h, according to CL. And what had to happen, happened. After overtaking a vehicle at full speed, the driver of the Pick-Up cannot avoid another car that is about to enter the Belle Plaine road. The collision is inevitable. After hitting the vehicle where a mother and her daughter were inside who were slightly injured, RM ends up against a wall of a Chinese supermarket. The impact is extremely violent. The passenger is seriously injured. She suffers from an open fracture of the pancreas and a fracture of the right hand. CL is quickly taken care of by the emergency teams. She is rushed to the Louis-Constant Fleming hospital before being transferred to the Pointe-à-Pitre University Hospital. “I thought I was going to die that night,” she told the court’s vice-president, Fayrouse Ib Nouachim, during her testimony. “I had just started my professional career as a teacher. Everything stopped overnight. I was fired. I couldn’t write anymore. All because of an accident that could have been avoided. In the end, I lost a year of my life.”
Called to the stand, RM apologized to his victims. “This accident has completely upset me,” he told the vice-president of the court and the deputy prosecutor, Marie-Lucie Godard. “It is a real trauma for me. I have hurt a lot of people. Once again, I send them my most sincere apologies.”
In her indictment, the deputy prosecutor requested a one-year prison sentence without a warrant, a fine of 300 euros for excessive speed, another fine of 500 euros and a 6-month retroactive license suspension.
After deliberation, the court found RM guilty of all the charges against him. He was finally sentenced to 6 months in prison without a warrant of committal (RM left the court free and hopes to benefit from a possible sentence reduction measure, editor's note), a 300 euro fine and a 6-month retroactive license suspension.
A referral on civil interests was granted to the victims to allow them to complete their file with a view to calculating compensation. The next hearing is scheduled for January 7, 2025. _AF
https://faxinfo.fr/en/tribunal-alcool-et-vitesse-en-cause-dans-un-grave-accident-a-qo-le-chauffard-condamne-a-six-mois-de-prison/
