On June 16, 2023, the first fatal accident took place on a construction site linked to the Olympic Games. Amara Dioumassy, a 51-year-old worker, was hit by a truck on a decontamination site in preparation for this summer’s Games. While the site is to be inaugurated this Thursday, his relatives and colleagues gathered there this Saturday in Paris, to pay tribute to him and demand justice.
2 mins
Trade unionists and relatives of the Malian worker who died on a construction site Olympic Games of Paris gathered on Saturday to demand “ justice » and bring this “out of oblivion modest death », in a country which is the worst student in the European Union in terms of workplace accidents. The ceremony took place on the eve of World Safety at Work Day. A legal investigation is underway, while his relatives and family allege that there were serious security breaches.
Amara Dioumassy was originally from Mali and father of twelve children. On June 16, 2023, he worked as a team leader on the Austerlitz basin construction site in Paris, intended to make the Seine swimmable for the Olympic Games 2024. But that day, a truck hit him while reversing. In question, the security conditions which were not respected, explains his nephew to RFI: “ There was no signage. There was no traffic man. Normally on a construction site, if there is no reversing camera or radar so that we can hear it, there is a traffic man to direct the driver. There was none of that. »
“ The most mundane security conditions were not applied »
The Malian worker worked for a subsidiary of the Veolia company. If the sites managed by Solideo, the delivery company for the Olympic works, benefit from reinforced controls, this was not the case at that of Amara, which was a Paris city site. The protection of workers was not a priority, affirms Jean-Albert Guidou, general secretary of the CGT of Bobigny: “ The most mundane security conditions were not applied, which is why Amara died. »
In total, 181 work accidents have been recorded, including 31 serious since the start of work related to the Olympic Games. In 2021 in France, there were still 640,000 work accidents, including 39,000 serious and 696 fatal, according to figures from Health Insurance, the public body which compensates victims.
Read alsoFrance: unions warn of the “hecatomb” of workplace accidents