Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credits: Romain Gautier / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 5:55 p.m., January 31, 2024
The National Assembly voted on Wednesday at first reading a bill to create a new offense of “road homicide”. Demanded by victims' associations, this new name has an especially symbolic value and was supported by the government after the dramatic accident caused by Pierre Palmade.
The National Assembly voted on Wednesday at first reading a bill to create a new offense of “road homicide”, rather than involuntary homicide, particularly when the driver has consumed alcohol or drugs. Demanded by victims' associations, this new name has an especially symbolic value and was supported by the government after the dramatic accident caused by comedian Pierre Palmade on February 10, 2023, under the influence of drugs. This transpartisan bill, adopted unanimously but with abstentions on the left, must now head to the Senate.
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New aggravating circumstances
This text does not change the quantum of penalties, and aims to no longer speak of involuntary homicide but of "road homicide", when one or more aggravating circumstances exist. It is notably requested by the association of three-star chef Yannick Alléno, whose son was killed by a driver in 2022 in Paris. This proposed law "is not only symbolic, it shows the deliberate nature of getting behind the wheel and dangerous driving" and can have "an effect on the sentence" that the judge will pronounce, believes Renaissance MP Anne Brugnera, co-rapporteur of the text with LR Eric Pauget.
The parliamentarians also add new aggravating circumstances to the law: failure to assist a person in danger, use by the driver of headphones or telephone in the hand, voluntary consumption in an indirect or manifestly excessive manner of psychoactive substances, refusal to comply and participation in an urban rodeo.
Up to ten years of imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros
Road homicide would be punishable by seven years of imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 euros when there is only one aggravating circumstance; and ten years of imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros when there are at least two aggravating circumstances. Involuntary attacks resulting in temporary total incapacity for work, committed with one or more aggravating circumstances, would henceforth be qualified as "road injuries", again without changing the penalties incurred.
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On the left, some are worried about the erasure of the distinction between voluntary and involuntary homicide, leaving an “impossible” in-between. This "display" text "sows doubt" by creating an "undetermined homicide", regrets the ecologist Jérémie Iordanoff, who called for measures such as lowering the legal limit for blood alcohol levels while driving and speed. authorized on the roads.
This “road homicide” is “a mixed act”, both “involuntary because the aim is not to kill” and “voluntary” for “taking alcohol” for example, replied the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond. -Moretti. “We are creating a fair qualification for a situation that was poorly understood,” he said. The adopted text also increases the penalties incurred for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and systematizes vehicle immobilizations and license suspensions.