Seven years after the accident which had cost 6 college students, the driver of the bus was sentenced to five years in prison, including two farms. The sentence on appeal is heavier than the initial sentence, which relieves the families of the victims, who still await apology from the driver of the coach.
The Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal pronounced its verdict in the case of the Millas drama. A school coach struck a TER in the Pyrenees-Orientales in 2017. Six children lost their lives in the accident and 17 had been injured, including eight seriously. The witnesses say that the driver of the bus, Nadine Oliveira, struck the barriers of the level crossing, while she always assures that they were lifted. This is why she called on her first judgment.
However, these arguments were not enough to convince the court of appeal, which pronounced a more severe judgment with a year of more prison, to be carried out with an electronic bracelet, carrying his sentence at five years in prison of which two farms. This sentence is accompanied by a cancellation of all its driving licenses, a prohibition to pass them for five years and a ban on carrying out any activity in the transport sector, according to the Dauphiné liberated.
A relief for the victims and their families, who have been waiting for this judgment for seven years. Some still fear that the driver of the coach tries to pass her case in front of the Court of Cassation, since she camps on her position of the open barriers.
The behavior of the driver implicated
In addition to not recognizing the facts, which are however attested by several witnesses, on the other side of the road, as well as adolescents present in the CAR, Nadine Oliveira, 55 years old has had special behavior since the start of this case, which should not have to help him see his sentence diminished. Indeed, she would not have pronounced any excuse for the victims and their families. Some victims, like Enzo, had launched: “She destroyed lives, excuses, it would be so much better”.
It must also be said that it was only little present at the two trials, the second of which she claimed, provoking the anger of the victims all the more. During the appeal trial, which took place from October 7 to 25, 2024, she had unwell from the third day, just after listening to the testimonies of adolescents present in the CAR. A teenager, now an adult, even lost a leg in the accident. The driver was hospitalized and missed the rest of the debates.
“It was she, the driver, who wanted this second trial and she disappeared again, so it was complicated to manage for families,” said Me Vanessa Brandone, who represents several families. But according to one of the driver’s lawyers, Me Jean Codognès, she would suffer from the “broken heart syndrome”, as in the first trial. This syndrome, as explained by Women’s Cardiovascular Healthcare Foundationcorresponds to “the accumulation of stress which leads to emotional fragility, which can lead to a paralysis of the heart muscle”. This would manifest itself by symptoms similar to that of infarction and mostly affect menopausal women in an intense emotional shock. Emergency hospitalization is necessary in the event of the appearance of these symptoms. This syndrome is also called Tako-Tsubo or Cardiomyopathy of stress.