A painful trial opens this Tuesday, April 12 before the correctional court of Mont-de-Marsan (Landes). A man is on trial for manslaughter under the influence of alcohol in a road accident in November 2021. The collision claimed the lives of two friends aged 19 and 20.
It was November 12, 2021, shortly before two in the morning. Aboard his pick-up, a man hit a car where three young people from Landes were on a secondary road in Saint-Martin-d’Oney. Two of them, aged 19 and 20, were ejected from the vehicle and lost their lives.
The driver of the pick-up, a 26-year-old from Gers, was heavily alcoholic: 2.25 grams of alcohol in his blood, more than four times the authorized limit. This Tuesday, April 12, he is tried before the correctional court of Mont-de-Marsan for manslaughter under the influence of alcohol.
A few minutes after the tragedy, the driver of the pickup attempted to commit suicide. He went to retrieve his hunting weapon from the trunk and shot himself in the head. Supported in a condition considered critical at the Bordeaux hospital, he emerged in December with one eye less and a shattered arch, without cognitive sequelae.
According to his lawyer, the defendant intends to admit his wrongs and plead guilty. “He is in sincere guilt with regard to the families”specifies Me Hubert Hazera, who describes his client as “a local kid”. He hunts, he plays rugby, he is a good living. Traditions “unfortunately related to alcohol consumption”laments the lawyer.
His client says he doesn’t remember anything after getting into his pickup. “According to the doctors, the shock caused by the gunshot could have caused total amnesia”, reports Me Hubert Hazera. The driver of the pickup faces up to five years in prison.
The trial will be painful for the relatives of the young men who lost their lives, Mohammed and Smaël. Originally from Saint-Pierre-du-Mont, the two friends were 19 and 20 years old. That evening, they were returning from Bordeaux with a friend they had picked up at the station. Placed in the back of the car, he was only slightly injured.
Online jackpots, tribute to the skate park, minute of silence before a match… After the tragedy, a real surge of solidarity was organized to support the families of Mohammed and Smaël.
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