Elisabeth Borne will announce Monday the creation of a qualification of “road homicide”, but without increasing the penalties incurred, said Sunday Matignon, who defends a change “of high symbolic value”. The Prime Minister will chair Monday afternoon at Matignon the Interministerial Committee for Road Safety (CISR), which had not met for five years.
The establishment of a “road homicide” is a demand of associations fighting against road violence and relatives of victims of road accidents. “We had a manslaughter by driver […]. Tomorrow, instead of talking about manslaughter, we will talk about road homicide: we are not changing anything else, we are changing the name of the facts, “said Matignon on Sunday evening when unveiling this measure. “The families of victims are shocked by this qualification of manslaughter,” Matignon argued on Sunday.
The name change will also apply to injuries, which will also be described tomorrow as “road” and no longer “involuntary”. The measure, for which no implementation date was announced on Sunday, “does not change anything in terms of repression. On the other hand, symbolically, we come to mark that we hear the unacceptable character (of the word) involuntary ”, argues the entourage of the Prime Minister.
However, the government did not choose to create a new offense with heavier penalties, but opted for a simple change of name, which will also apply to injuries, described tomorrow as “road” and no longer “involuntary”. “. “We are in the” better support “the victims, better recognize them, not aggravate” the sanctions, we explained from the same source.
Associations and lawyers for victims interviewed by Agence France-Presse did not hide a certain disappointment. “We still thought they would go further than semantic change. It’s better than nothing but what’s the message? Above all, we wanted tougher penalties and accompanying measures, ”regrets Jean-Yves Lamant, president of the League against road violence. “It’s not a setback, but it’s a missed opportunity. It won’t have any effect in reality,” he said.
Worn for ten years by two families, the claim of a “road homicide” was taken up by the association created by the starred chef Yannick Alléno after the death in May 2022 of his son Antoine, hit by a driver. The cook has been asking for several months that road homicide be an independent offence. His association informed Agence France-Presse on Sunday that it would communicate on Monday on the system proposed by the government.
By becoming “road homicide” by an amendment to the Penal Code, “manslaughter” committed by a driver will be punished up to 5 years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros. The penalties incurred will remain increased to seven years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros with an aggravating circumstance, ten years and 150,000 euros if there are several.
According to figures from Road Safety, in 2022, some 3,260 people died on the roads of mainland France, a balance sheet at a stable level compared to 2019, the last reference year before the pandemic.
