Drunk driving and fatal accidents: in Chartres, how to raise awareness among young people?

If it’s called “serious game”, there’s a reason. This Tuesday, June 7, 2022, around fifty young people from the Jehan-de-Beauce high school in Chartres (Eure-et-Loir) were present in court. Twenty of them have rebuilt a trial held six years earlier.

This false audience is part of the “serious game” project, belonging to the departmental road safety plan, organized by the National Education, the prefecture, the Ministry of Justice as well as the Departmental Directorate of Territories.

judges for a day

A young driver caused the death of her friend at the wheel, under the influence of alcohol returning from a night out. The facts are very real, but this morning, the trial is fictitious. The defendants, lawyers, clerks, judges and prosecutors are not professionals, but will pass their major oral baccalaureate in a few weeks.

In this case, JM, played here by two students taking turns, is accused of homicide, involuntary injuries to two of her friends who were passengers in her car, after leaving the road on December 30, 2015. She was speeding and in alcohol level (1.40 g / l), after not having “not paid attention to the glasses she was drinking”.

For nearly an hour, script in hand, these final year students will spend each in turn at the helmto defend their case, plead for their comrade or testify to their infinite sadness after the loss of a loved one.

A “stressful” exercise, as evidenced by the defendant’s lawyers, but necessary before the high school exit exams which will arrive soon. All under the eyes of the pilot of the initiative, their philosophy teacher, Émilie Bathier, for whom this fictitious trial was not a first, since a similar edition had already taken place with high school students two years ago.

Getting closer to reality

As explained by the magistrates of the day, who worked on a lightened investigation file, it is a question of “lives upset and destroyed” by driving under the influence of alcohol. “Common facts and that’s the problem”, then confesses a pupil spectator.

While the vast majority of interventions were framed by the circumstances of the case, real freedom of expression was possible during the testimony of the civil party.

The students’ writings were written after an expertise real protagonists, so that each demonstration is as close as possible to the reality of the trial. The sister of one of the two victims spoke in particular of “a nightmare that will never end”, or of a “whole family died at the same time as him”.

The students discovered today the words of the others, as in a real trial. “It may have confirmed certain vocations, since some are already attracted to a legal career” raises Émilie Bathier.

For Thomas, who played the president of the jury, this trial is “a very rewarding, but complicated experience”.

It’s interesting to see how a court really works, what role is played. We don’t expect all that, don’t realize that we have to think about so many things.

After deliberation, the false defendant was sentenced to two-year suspended prison sentence, five years of license withdrawal, as well as several tens of thousands of euros in damages. Note that the students had to judge without knowing what sentence had been pronounced against the “real defendant”.

Six years ago, the penalty was slightly heavier : thirty months of suspended prison sentence including six months firm, which were finally arranged after a passage before the judge of application of the sentences.

A specific goal

Behind this game, there is a clear will: educate young people about the dangers of drinking and driving“to put oneself in the place of the one who is always believed to be different”, explains Pénélope Cardon, deputy prosecutor.

The hundred hours required to arrive at this final result, some with the students, others outside of school hours, “gave the students a lot to think about” according to Emilie Bathier, philosophy professor in charge of the trial. In addition to preparing for future orals, these high school students were able to question themselves on the issues at the heart of a trial.

Same story on the side of the State, for whom the situation of a criminal trial is much more telling than a long one-hour monologue on the dangers of the road, as Yannis Bouzar affirms, office manager from the Prefect of Eure-et-Loir: “What I particularly appreciated was that we tried to get young people to think about the issues that concern them, rather than telling them the truth about road safety, they have already heard. Their involvement was remarkable. »

The results of this operation seem satisfactory and another edition is already in the pipeline, in order to perpetuate the initiative. The part of this “serious game” is not over yet.

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