The 18-year-old man who died Sunday in a motocross accident in Argenteuil, in the Val-d'Oise, was not chased by the police car which was near the scene and an expert opinion confirms the absence of shock between the two vehicles, said Monday the prosecution of Pontoise. "The first findings confirm at this stage the lack of pursuit of the motorcycle by the police," said the prosecution. "Expertise in accidentology has already been commissioned. The first conclusions confirm the absence of a collision between the police vehicle and the motorcycle."
Accident in the night from Saturday to Sunday
An investigation had been opened Sunday by the prosecution to determine the circumstances of the accident which took place on the night of Saturday to Sunday, when the driver, without helmet, of a motocross struck a concrete electric pole located on a sidewalk in a suburban area of the city. The victim died "following a craniofacial trauma due to the shock against the concrete post", Sunday morning at the hospital of Pitié-Salpêtrière, in Paris, specifies the parquet floor.
According to police officials from the Ermont Crime Squad (BAC), who were patrolling Argenteuil and driving on this street, "they noticed a motocross-type motorcycle moving towards them at high speed," said the prosecution. The street being narrow, the driver of the motorbike "would have moved to the sidewalk to continue on his way". The sidewalk borrowed by the victim being also "narrow and strewn with obstacles", it struck one of the posts, continues the parquet floor.
Brief scuffles at Argenteuil
Sunday evening, brief scuffles broke out in Argenteuil in the neighborhood where the victim is from. Cars and garbage cans were set on fire and bus shelters were ransacked, an AFP journalist said.
Deployed in large numbers, the security forces notably used tear gas to disperse small groups. "The return to calm occurred around 2:30 am" and "an arrest took place," said a police source.