Knacki dangerous for toddlers? The Dax Criminal Court is re-examining the question this Monday, in a new hearing enriched with an expert report, where the Herta company, prosecuted for manslaughter after the death of a two-year-old boy in 2014, suffocated by a piece of sausage.
The group is attacked by Florence and Vincent Lerbey, for “manslaughter by manifestly deliberate violation of an obligation of safety or prudence” laid down by the Consumer Code, after the death by suffocation of their son, Lilian, during their summer vacation eight years ago.
The boy died despite the intervention of firefighters
Their 2-year-old and 11-month-old son died on August 11, 2014 at a campsite in Messanges, on the Landes coast, where the Bordeaux family was staying. That day, on returning from the beach with a couple of friends and their children, the mother prepares the meal for the little ones. On the menu, green beans and Knacki sausages that she cuts into thin slices.
After a few mouthfuls, Lilian takes his throat between his hands, he chokes. Florence Lerbey immediately alerts her husband and her friend, a nurse anesthetist. She tries to remove the piece from the baby’s throat, make him cough, practice the Heimlich maneuver and pat him on the back, keeping him flat on his stomach on his knees while the mother calls 15.
Dad also takes him by the feet, upside down. Nothing works. It’s cardiac arrest. The piece of sausage ended up being removed by the nurse using special pliers when the firefighters arrived.
Understanding if Herta products are dangerous
Lilian’s parents filed a complaint against Herta, asking for the symbolic euro, to prevent the tragedy from happening again.
“The goal is to understand. We do not know if this product is dangerous or not”, explains Me Philippe Courtois, family lawyer, who puts in parallel the messages of recommendations to “cut (…) into very small pieces” affixed by the mark on the back packets with “Herta advertisements, (…) where you systematically see children with sausages cut in four or in two”.
He recalls that cases of choking have already affected a few other children. In 2018, the Paris Court of Appeal notably found Herta liable for the disability of a 3-year-old girl who had been close to death with a “Knacki ball” six years earlier, and compensated the parents, considering that the packaging did not give sufficient warning of the potential danger.
At the end of the first hearing which took place in January 2021 at the Dax Criminal Court, the prosecution had requested the release of Herta, considering that it was not necessary to “confuse the legal and the emotional “. But the court had ordered an expertise to measure the spongy and sticky character of the Knacki or their swelling in contact with the saliva of the children.
According to the expert, “a set of technical impossibilities” prevent us from concluding that there is a possible danger or, conversely, from ruling it out.
“If Herta had an expert who said ‘don’t worry, it’s not dangerous’, believe that we would have had him a long time ago”, attacks Me Courtois who asks “to go further in the questions asked to the ‘expert’, like wondering about the ‘recommendations and advice’ written by Herta on the packaging.
The company and its representative did not wish to speak before the hearing.