Updated
After the serious urban rodeo accident that occurred in the Val-d’Oise on Friday evening, having injured two children, Gérald Darmanin spoke on the subject this Monday, during a visit to Marseille.
Friday evening, two children were violently hit by a man engaged in an urban rodeo in Pontoise. An 11-year-old boy suffered a tibia-fibula fracture and suffered from traumatic amnesia. A 10-year-old girl is in critical condition with head trauma.
“I want to express my total disapproval and my total firmness in the face of this phenomenon which I describe as criminal,” said Gérald Darmanin on Monday, visiting Marseille. In addition to qualifying the urban rodeo as a “criminal phenomenon”, the Minister of the Interior announced that he had asked the police and the gendarmerie to intensify controls. 10,000 additional control operations will take place from today.
Regarding the policy already in place, the Minister recalled that for two months, 8,000 operations have been carried out by the police and the gendarmerie, resulting in 1,200 arrests. 700 motorcycles, quads and cars were seized. “Unheard of,” he said.
In Gironde, two teenagers were injured, one of them seriously on Sunday afternoon, following an urban rodeo. Their motorcycles collided. In early June, a 19-year-old man died in Rennes after being knocked down during an urban rodeo by a motorcycle.