Millas accident: five years after the tragedy, the trial begins



VSFive years after the death of six college students in the collision of their school bus with a train in Millas, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, the trial of the driver will open Monday, September 19 in Marseille. The only person warned, she maintains that the level crossing was open.

Nadine Oliveira, 53, will be present at the hearing, which is due to start at 10:30 a.m., assured her lawyer, Jean Codognès, to Agence France-Presse: “It will be a test. She will give her version of the facts. His position has not changed since the beginning. She says the barriers were up and other witnesses say so. “But” she is destroyed, she is more than traumatized by this accident “, he added before this trial where his client will find himself on Tuesday facing the story of the injured children who agreed to testify.

For the moment, 123 civil parties have joined this “non-standard trial”. But others could appear on Monday, according to Olivier Leurent, president of the Marseilles court, which has a specialized center to investigate and judge collective accidents in the south-east of France.

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Three weeks of debates

On December 14, 2017, shortly after 4 p.m., the violent collision between this school bus transporting 23 children from Millas college and a regional express train (TER) at a level crossing left 6 dead and 17 injured, including 8 very seriously. In shock, the bus had been cut in two.

The technical expertise carried out during the investigation concluded that the driver, who was used to this route, forced “the half-barrier closed at the said level crossing while a regional express train was arriving”. For the investigators, “the most probable hypothesis, on a technical level”, is indeed “that of a level crossing closed at the time of the accident”, even if the testimonies attesting to the opposite, including those of some children, “are in the majority”.

This question and the configuration of the premises will be central points during the debates, scheduled to last three weeks before the Marseille criminal court, in a special room that can accommodate 400 people. “Some of my clients regret that there is only Ms. Oliveira before the court, believing that other circumstances may have favored the occurrence of the accident”, explained Mr.e Marie Mescam, lawyer for 37 civil parties, including 7 children. For civil parties who have difficulty moving, the trial will also be broadcast at the Palais des Congrès in Perpignan. At the end of the trial, the judgment should be reserved and delivered before Christmas.


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