This industrial accident had created a stir. On July 17, 2017, on the A68 motorway construction site between Albi and Toulouse, at the Saint-Sulpice interchange, a 28-year-old Tarn man died after being run over by the wheels of a truck. That day, while performing a maneuver in reverse, the driver of an 8×4 truck, loaded with about thirty tons of gravel, did not see his unfortunate colleague “traffic man” guiding another truck. of the site. Caught by the rear wheels of the heavy truck, the worker was killed instantly.
A “technical” file
This Tuesday, the judicial court of Castres had the heavy task of judging this “technical” and “sensitive” file. At the helm, the driver of the truck, the company Colas Sud-Ouest (employer of the victim), which is criticized in particular for insufficient markup for all construction machinery, an absence of guidance and “the absence of new site meetings aimed at preventing risks during changes in procedure “, as well as SA Bureau Veritas Construction, for lack of a general coordination plan. All are being prosecuted for manslaughter. “But we have some difficulties in this case”, declares the president of the court, from the first minutes of the hearing, before leaving the floor to the prosecutor. “I intend to raise the nullity of two of the three citations, in particular those of Bureau Veritas Construction and SAS Colas – for which there may be some doubt about the object of the prevention. We sued for acts of homicide. involuntary, but I noticed on reading the quotation that the articles of the labor code were not covered, only those of the penal code were. Today, I believe that the defendant was not does not have the means to know what exactly my public prosecutor’s office intends to reproach him with “, he declared, also asking for additional information to rule on the category (2 or 3) of the site and therefore” to regularize the procedure “. A statement which made the lawyers of the said companies “jump”: “It is a procedure that began two years ago now. Experts have spoken out on this, and a labor inspector intervened. So I do not see not why there would be an additional expertise “, explained Me Antoine Alonso Garcia, lawyer of the company Bureau Veritas. “I am shocked. This nullity has no basis and above all, we would have liked to be warned by email rather than learning that today, at the start of the hearing. And I am sorry, but we are not using the nullity and then come to modify the citations in order to broaden the proceedings, ”declared for his part, Me Annick Perol, lawyer for SAS Colas, who asked to reject the exception of nullity.
The tone was set. Indeed, in this case, the question of the classification of the site in category 2 or 3 monopolized the debates. An important classification since it determines the levels of security coordination. If during the investigation, it was considered that the site was classified in category 3 (headcount less than 20 employees), certain documents submitted in the file, cast doubt on the precise number of employees present at the time of construction. ‘accident.
“We believe that the safety rules have been applied in the general framework of the site”, confided one of the agency heads of the Colas company. “My employee fulfilled her mission. She made site visits, but she was not present every day, so it was not possible to see if there were any shortcomings …”, explained the technical director of Bureau Veritas. “I was convinced that there was no one there”, confided the driver of the truck, very effaced during this hearing. Several months after the accident, this man from Albi was on sick leave and followed by a psychiatrist.
“It hurts…”
“Several things call out to me when we talk about safety. Everyone plays chatting perched there, everyone has to take their responsibilities. I am a site manager and I was a truck driver. We often work in insecurity, and that’s a certainty, “blurted out the victim’s father. Her son must have been 28 years old. A sporty young man, with a healthy life, considered as someone “serious” and “careful” by those around him. “It’s a big void. We miss it every day. It hurts…”, added the grieving father. “Yes, it’s tragic. The driver is responsible but he is not the only one and that is the whole point of this hearing. Why were there not two traffic men that day for example… ? “, raised the lawyer of the family.
“The prosecution is clearly not up to the tragedy that has occurred. The case I bring to this hearing is in my opinion full of errors and full of uncertainties, doubts and silences that are particularly prejudicial for the serenity of the debates and to disentangle the share of responsibilities of the ones and the others “, declared the prosecutor, before requesting 10 months of suspended sentence for the driver.
The decision will be rendered on February 16.
–
