Comedian Pierre Palmade told the coroner he was “horrified” by the consequences for the victims of the serious traffic accident he caused while under the influence of drugs in February, according to his statements to the coroner published on Monday by Le Parisien.
• Also read: France: The release of comedian Pierre Palmade confirmed
On February 10, Pierre Palmade drove a car into a vehicle in front of him on a departmental road in Seine-et-Marne. In addition to the actor, the accident left three seriously injured people: a 38-year-old man, his 6-year-old son and his 27-year-old sister-in-law, who lost her expected baby after the collision.
“I am horrified to know that I am the cause of all this (…) I have ruined a family’s life. “I go to sleep and get up with it, seriously,” the 55-year-old artist told the judge in charge of the investigation during an interrogation on September 26 in the Melun court.
After suffering from drug problems for decades, Pierre Palmade had just consumed drugs for three days without sleeping when he got behind the wheel with two passengers to go shopping.
Originally charged with murder and involuntary assault by a driver who had used narcotics as a repeat offender, that classification will likely not be reduced to involuntary assault until trial.
A medical expert concluded that the child carried by the pregnant passenger, who underwent a cesarean section after the accident, had died before birth and therefore could not legally be considered a human person.
“I bear responsibility for the death of a child (…) Whether it died before or after birth, the result is the same, it is my fault,” assessed Pierre Palmade before the judge, as Le Parisien in his comments reported.
The actor has been banned from leaving the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region since the beginning of June. His judicial review requires him to undergo treatment to address his drug addiction.
Pierre Palmade stated before the examining magistrate that he had followed this treatment diligently, but that he had suffered a relapse last June during an outing at a nightclub in Bordeaux, the videos of which had been published on social networks and had caused a scandal.