A lost driver trying to find his way in Gensac-sur-Garonne (Haute-Garonne) was caught by the driver of an excavator who did not want to give him the right of way. Scary…
It is the story of ordinary stupidity and violence. A story that could have gone very wrong for a driver who lives in Labarthe-sur-Lèze (Haute-Garonne), still shocked by his accident.
On this September Monday, in the early afternoon, Julien, an old man of sixty, returns from picking mushrooms in Volvestre. Since he doesn't know the area well, he uses his Waze GPS which sends him to the crossroads in the town of Gensac-sur-Garonne (Haute-Garonne). “The right lane was blocked for work and so I turned left,” he says. But a few minutes later the driver realizes that he is back in the same place. He then notifies workers working on a ditch on the blocked road.
“You shall not pass”…
“I explained to them that I was lost and asked them if they could let me pass,” assures Julien. Especially since a few meters further he can reach the ramp leading to the four-lane A 64 motorway “The excavator driver then got angry, telling me that there was no problem and that I was the sixth in the morning. not to respect the blocked road and the detour put in place.
Signs Julien didn't see. To shorten the discussion, the worker placed the excavator bucket in the middle of the path. “I saw that I was still passing and engaged,” continued Julien, “But as we rounded the obstacle, the backhoe driver caught me with the bucket under the rocker panel, pulling me back onto the tracks. I thought he would crush me if he caught me at the door, he would crush me.
In a daze, Julien gets out of the vehicle after regaining consciousness, one foot in the bucket, one on the road. “So now, you're going to join your four-lane road,” mockingly says his interlocutor… Confused, Julien pulls out his phone, dials 15, then 18, and runs into the firemen who tell him the Carbonne gendarmes. i'm on my way When they arrived, they noticed that Julien's car had been hit on the driver's side and quickly put an end to the sarcasm of the workers who, according to Julien, were still laughing. The patrol then invites him to lodge a complaint with the gendarmerie where he is initially accused of “destroying or damaging a vehicle by means dangerous to people”.
Word for word…
But the next day, Julien notices that the reference to “dangerous means” has disappeared from the minutes, in which only “damage to a private vehicle” is recorded. But there is no question of him giving up his version of the incident. “The digger driver deliberately cornered me, it's an unspeakable act I'm still shivering and on anxiolytics.”
On the side of the earthworks company, I explained to the police and the insurance company that the motorist entered the excavator himself. In the absence of other witnesses, it's word for word, but the photos taken by Julien and the condition of his car's body can provide information to investigators. Julien, who contacted a lawyer, is now waiting for the prosecutor's opinion. As for the mushrooms, he brought back a handful of chanterelles and a Oranges. All this for this…