PublishedAugust 6, 2022, 10:17 PM
FranceTwo children seriously injured during an urban rodeo near Paris
Two children were hit and seriously injured on Friday evening by a biker in Val-d’Oise. He surrendered to police on Saturday.
The two children, aged 10 and 11, are still hospitalized. (illustrative image)
AFP
An 18-year-old man was taken into police custody on Saturday after admitting to having knocked down and seriously injured two children aged 10 and 11 on Friday evening with a motocross during an urban rodeo in Pontoise (Val-d’Oise), we learned on Saturday from the Pontoise public prosecutor’s office.
The facts took place on Friday around 9:15 p.m. while the two children, “a 10-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy were playing tag” on the esplanade, in the Hauts Marcouville district, in Pontoise, indicates the Departmental Direction of public security (DDSP) of Val-d’Oise.
The two children were hit by a motorcyclist who fled. The latter would be from the same neighborhood as the children, according to police sources. The next day, at the start of the afternoon, the young man went to the police station with his lawyer and “acknowledged the facts”, indicated the Pontoise prosecutor’s office.
“Heavy neurological sequelae”
The girl has “a head trauma”. She was taken to Necker Hospital in Paris and operated on Saturday. “If this child remains alive, she will have heavy neurological sequelae”, specified the parquet floor of Pontoise.
The boy has a tibia-fibula fracture. He was first transported to Pontoise hospital but his condition deteriorated and was airlifted to Amiens hospital. “His condition has stabilized”, continues this source. He also suffered “traumatic amnesia”, details the prosecution.
The investigation opened for involuntary injury aggravated by the hit-and-run was entrusted to the Cergy-Pontoise police station. In the department of Val-d’Oise since the beginning of April, 534 interventions have been recorded for urban rodeos. Thirty-seven people were arrested and 34 motorcycles were seized, according to figures from the DDSP.
On June 8, a 19-year-old young man died after being hit by a motorcycle during an urban rodeo in Rennes. A 2018 law strengthening the law against motorized rodeos provides penalties of up to 5 years in prison for their perpetrators.
(AFP)