The 7-year-old girl seriously injured by a biker in the middle of an urban rodeo in early August in Pontoise (Val-d'Oise) came out of a coma, her family's lawyer announced on Monday in a press release sent to AFP.

“His condition has improved but still requires medical attention,” added Raphaël Cabral in the press release.

At the time of the events, the Pontoise public prosecutor's office had told AFP that she risked retaining "severe neurological sequelae".

Head trauma

On Friday August 5, around 9:15 p.m., the little girl was "playing tag" with an 11-year-old boy on an esplanade, in the Hauts Marcouville district of Pontoise, when they were hit by a biker who fled.

With a head trauma, the girl had been operated on at the Necker hospital in Paris.

The boy, suffering from a tibia-fibula fracture, was hospitalized in Amiens.

The next day, in the early afternoon, the biker, a young man of 18, went to the police station with his lawyer and admitted the facts.

He was indicted and imprisoned on August 8 for "involuntary injuries resulting in total incapacity for work for more than three months" aggravated by two circumstances, the hit and run and the breach of security obligations.

Reinforced controls on urban rodeos

The drama has put this widespread but illegal phenomenon back in the spotlight.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had asked for an "intensification of controls" throughout the national territory "to fight against these criminal acts".

In the department of Val-d'Oise since the beginning of April, 534 interventions have been recorded for urban rodeos.

37 people were arrested and 34 motorcycles were seized, according to figures released in early August by the Departmental Directorate of Public Security (DDSP) of Val-d'Oise.

On June 8, a 19-year-old young man died after being hit by a motorcycle during an urban rodeo in Rennes.

A 2018 law strengthening the law against motorized rodeos provides penalties of up to 5 years in prison for their perpetrators.

The urban rodeo, "it's especially dangerous for the people around"

Justice

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