Fatal wreck on the Seine in 2008: the trial continues Tuesday – TF1

Fatal wreck on the Seine in 2008: the trial continues Tuesday – TF1

The case dates back to 2008. On Saturday 13 September this year, a small boat, Alcyone is cast to Our Lady of Paris by a huge riverboat, The Besogne. Two people died in the drama that unfolds s up to the island of the City, at a narrow passage-way navigation.

Projected against a pillars of the central arch of the bridge of the Archdiocese, Alcyone, in which were twelve passengers, sank immediately. Two of them, the driver and a child of six, remained trapped in the boat, could not be revived.

The pilot boat -mouche appear for “involuntary homicide and injuries”, “navigation at excessive speed” and “drug usage,” the man who tested positive for cannabis. “Leaving the Petit Pont, I saw the lights of a boat near the bridge of the Archdiocese. Given the distance between us (over 250 meters), it normally sailed, he had plenty of time to go before I catch up on, “said the bar Florent Bonnin, 47, dark suit and tie on white shirt.

“Afterwards, if I have not seen, perhaps it was not visible,” argued the driver. The man had previously explained that the wheelhouse of his boat at the back, when tourists were standing to photograph Notre Dame, he saw nothing and had to rely on a camera attached to the front. “Maybe at that time, I’m too focused on my other camera on the left side because the bridge of the Archdiocese is particularly close to go,” he conceded.

“This is my territory”

The ten survivors Alcyone and family of the two victims as civil parties. In the courtroom, the two models, arranged on a desk, show the enormous size difference between the long Besogne of 60 meters and Alcyone, 9 meters. “For these large riverboats, it is” my home is my territory and you, you’re nothing, you have nothing to do there, “said Gilles Renard at the helm, marine and passenger Alcyone according to the accident could be summed up as “intimidation that went wrong.” “If the Besogne had dropped his regime, nothing would have happened,” he assured.

The Chairperson recalled river rules on this section the Seine that frame the browsing speed between 6 and 12 km / h, with no overtaking and compulsory compliance with a safety distance between two boats. “Few riverboats that meet these distances, especially
Saturday night where the Seine is a highway. Two hours should do if
our loop,” admitted Florent Bonnin.

If Alcyone flying at 6 km / h according to Gilles Renard, no real estimate of the speed of the riverboat was presented. The president was surprised that flies boats are not equipped with speedometers. She also stressed that a variable part of the salary of the companion crews depended on the number of completed loops (32 euros per round), which it believes could explain the allure adopted by pilots. “We do not give our drivers set, they are the sole command,” assured investigators with a company official.