After the management of the disaster comes for the time of responsibilities. The first elements of the fire investigation, who left Pennes-Mirabeau on Tuesday and which touched Marseille, establish that the origin of the loss is due to a vehicle which caught fire on the edge of the highway. An accident, of course, but the technical control of the car was not up to date.
Therefore the question of responsibilities arises, both civil and criminal. Because the consequences are heavy: more than 80 houses have been heavily damaged, several hundred dislodged people and several dozen people, firefighters, police and inhabitants, injured. This, without mentioning the 750 hectares who left for smoke, nor the interruptions of motorway, rail and air traffic.
The Guarantee Fund for Victims on the front line
“If the owner of the vehicle was well up to date with his contributions, the validity of his insurance contract is conditioned on compliance with certain obligations, such as carrying out technical control,” introduces Marion Paolozzi, lawyer in Marseille, specializing in insurance law. And to specify: “Whatever happens, third parties who have suffered damage, [par exemple ceux qui ont vu leur habitation endommagée ou détruite] will be compensated by their insurance. Then charge their insurer to turn against that of the owner of the vehicle. »»
From there, two options are emerging: either the vehicle insurer agrees to guarantee damage, or he refuses and denounces the contract. “In this case, he will turn against his insured,” said the council. Given the amount of compensation “the victims’ guarantee fund will be mobilized”, she continues. And to specify that in this file, the warranty will be in the all cases requested because the insurance contracts have a ceiling and that in a situation like this, it is exceeded.
At the criminal level, the expertise of the decisive vehicle
“Endangering the life of others”, “involuntary injury”, “damage to the environment”, “destruction, degradation or involuntary deterioration of a property” … Several criminal qualifications can be retained. Depending on the severity of the damage, the penalties incurred range from a simple fine to five years in prison and a fine of € 75,000, “in the event of an involuntary fire causing injuries that caused a total incapacity for work for at least 8 days”.
“Everything will depend on the results of the survey and the expertise,” explains 20 Minutes Célia Borrelli, lawyer in Marseille. “Because the expertise must be able to demonstrate that the fire that declared itself on the vehicle could have been avoided if the technical control was up to date.”
Plead the “force majeure”
In addition, as the driver of the vehicle behind the fire was not his owner, may ask the question of who bears responsibilities. “In the case of road accident, case law wants it to be the driver, who has control, control and the management of the vehicle that is responsible. »»
“But here it would be the owner,” said Célia Borrelli who, if she had to defend such a situation would try to plead “the case of force majeure. Because without mistral, neither drought, nor presence of trees at this level of the highway, while the rest is rather devoid of it, in other words without all of these circumstances independent of the responsibility of the respondent, the fire would not have taken such a dimension “.