She says she was comforted in her fight after a "strong" exchange with the person responsible for her accident.

"For me, there was clearly a before and after this exchange. It greatly contributed to removing the anger, it was positive for the future, I understood a lot of things", explains to AFP Pauline Déroulède , which has just broadcast a first awareness clip on its social networks and opened an online kitty.

Today N.2 French wheelchair tennis dreaming of the Paralympic Games in 2024 in Paris, Pauline Déroulède lost her left leg after being hit by a car.

The driver, a 92-year-old man, violently hit her - and two other people - while she was stationary on her scooter in Paris.

Pauline Déroulède, member of the French wheelchair tennis team, during a tournament, September 28, 2020 FRANCK FIFE AFP / Archives

"If the drivers who hit us had passed a driving aptitude test, they would no longer have their license. And Cléo and I would still have our two legs", underlines in her clip Pauline Déroulède who we see alongside of Cléo, 10 years old, mowed down at the age of 3 by an 86-year-old lady.

The campaign received the support of the Minister in charge of Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, and the doctor Michel Cymes.

"It's crazy that in France, we have the license for life without any control, we can drive up to 100 years old", protests Déroulède, who says he has not received the support of Road Safety "under the election pretext.

According to Road Safety, the interministerial delegate Marie Gautier-Melleray "is subject to a right of reserve and cannot commit to certain subjects" during elections.

"Pauline Déroulède was received several times by the delegate and her predecessor", underlined to AFP Road Safety, for whom "it is not age that presents a danger, but the appearance of pathologies or the need to resort to treatments that impact the ability to drive".

Déroulède was comforted in her fight after speaking with the person who made her disabled.

"I'm happy to have had this exchange with him within the framework of something called restorative justice. I needed to have his version. I couldn't see myself not speaking to him within the framework of this fight that I lead", she says.

The exchange took place in video, at the end of the confinement, in the presence of the wife of the nonagenarian.

"It was strong. I had no hatred, just needed to understand. In what I saw, they were destroyed, it could have been my grandparents. It pains me to see two old people like that crying. A 92-year-old gentleman who cries… And who calls you by your first name, it is not forgotten", she recalls.

"But at the same time this gentleman told me that he knew he was no longer capable. That if there was a law, he would have respected it. These are his words. +Because we, the elderly people, we respect the laws+. We come out of this exchange and we say to ourselves: with Tiphaine (his partner, editor's note), them and I are four broken lives for something that could have been avoided. What a waste!

"This gentleman reversed the pedals as is often the case, he pressed the accelerator instead of the brake and he hit me at 80 km / h. He was disoriented, he was no longer capable. C That's why we need tests," she asserts.

The nonagenarian has since passed away last December.

© 2022 AFP