“The scene is very impressive. The vehicle is literally cut in two. And it’s not first the result of the intervention of the firefighters to extricate the victims. It is difficult to understand how the accident happened. “Even the public prosecutor of Meaux, Jean-Baptiste Bladierwho went there in the middle of the night, is amazed by the scene he discovered.
Two dead and two injured in serious condition, such is the macabre consequence of a traffic accident that occurred overnight from Saturday to Sunday. Around 12:40 a.m., a white Volkswagen which was traveling “at high speed”, according to an investigator, ended its race in the scaffolding attached to a house located at the corner of the Sadi-Carnot quay and the rue de Trévise, just following the Pont Neuf, in the Market district, in Meaux. According to another source, “the speed was estimated at 145 km/h”.
The man believed to be the driver fled first
Among the five occupants of the car, two men lost their lives. The other two passengers, including a 25-year-old Meldois, were seriously injured. A Civil Security helicopter took one of them to the Kremlin-Bicêtre hospital (Val-de-Marne). The other injured was transported to Pitié-Salpêtrière (Paris XIII). “The vital prognosis is engaged for both”, detailed the prosecutor this Sunday at the end of the morning.
The fifth occupant, the alleged driver, little or not injured at all, fled on foot even before the arrival of help. He was placed in police custody, announced the public prosecutor at the end of the followingnoon this Sunday. The man would have presented himself to the Meaux police station.
“In its race, the car dragged the scaffolding”
Living right next to the scene of the tragedy, Annick, 69, testifies. ” I was sleeping. The noise woke me up right away! It sounded like iron. I opened my window. From her observation post, the witness was able to observe everything: “The car stopped in the middle of the street (Annick points to the place). In her run, she dragged the scaffolding. »
The Meaux firefighters dispatched four vehicles to the scene: three ambulances, a roadside rescue van and a command vehicle. This represents a total of thirteen rescuers. The rescue operation ended around 2:30 a.m. No extrication would have been necessary to extricate the victims from the destroyed passenger compartment of the Volkswagen.
“This accident is not the result of a chase”
An investigation was opened by police officers from the Meaux police station. The identity of the victims might not be clearly established last night, with the exception of one of the two deceased. According to our information, the four victims live in the Beauval district of Meaux.
We also know nothing regarding the circumstances of the tragedy. “This accident is not the result of a chase, whether with a third-party vehicle or a police car. A second vehicle was involved in an accident but it was parked at the time of the collision, ”says the prosecution. The Volkswagen was placed under seal for examination.
The collision generated a phenomenal noise. Residents of the accident area came out. Residents of Beauval were associated with these, who, warned, arrived on the spot. “The police had to contain the crowd,” says a witness.
An onlooker released a shocking video of the rescue operations
At the very beginning of the rescue operations, when the police had not yet had time to set up a security perimeter, one or more people filmed the scene of the extraction of the victims from the car. Terrible images that quickly circulated on social networks and that the family of the injured saw. “To run these kinds of videos is despicable. The family was shocked, ”we storm the side of the town hall.
The accident occurred at the very end of a long straight line, Rue Aristide-Briand extended by the Pont Neuf and the Quai Sadi-Carnot, consisting of a two-lane one-way axis, ending in a 90° turn to the left. This axis, where the speed is limited to 50 km/h, is the scene of frequent speeding. And sometimes accidents.
In January 2020, two serious accidents occurred less than a hundred meters away, rue Aristide-Briand. One of them had seen a vehicle end up flipped on its side, in front of the Chinese restaurant, following hitting several parked vehicles on both sides of the road. A week earlier, a motorist hit an elderly passer-by, found seriously injured, thrown under a parked car.
