A 19-year-old man died Tuesday evening in Marseille after losing control of his motorcycle and hitting a pole while riding an urban rodeo.
A 19-year-old man died Tuesday evening in Marseille after losing control of his motorcycle and hitting a pole while riding an urban rodeo, AFP learned from police sources. The facts occurred around 9:20 p.m. on a boulevard located in the east of Marseille (11th arrondissement), while the victim, wearing a helmet, was doing a rear wheel in front of a friend with his new motorcycle, a large engine of 650 cm3. But the young man lost his balance, first hitting the sidewalk and then a pole, several police sources told AFP. The driver, who was driving without a license or insurance, was known to the police for three traffic offences.
On August 8, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced from Marseille an intensification of controls throughout France against people performing urban rodeos, acts “often criminals who come to kill, who come to very seriously injure”. Since that date, more than 150 scooters and motorcycles have been seized during nearly 3,000 police and gendarmerie operations, the minister said on Twitter on Tuesday, assuring that from this Wednesday “each police station would carry out at least three anti-rodeo operations per day”.
On August 5, a seven-year-old child was seriously injured during an urban rodeo in Pontoise (Val-d’Oise). The 18-year-old biker had first fled before going to the police station the next day. He has since been charged and imprisoned. On June 8, a 19-year-old young man lost his life after being hit by a motorcycle during an urban rodeo in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine). A 2018 law strengthening penalties against perpetrators of motorized rodeos provides for penalties of up to 5 years in prison.