Dantesque chase in the north of Gard: the driver of the “crazy truck” is sentenced to five years in prison

Le procès s'est tenu ce lundi 26 février, au palais de justice de la capitale des Cévennes. MIDI LIBRE – CHARLES LEDUC

The defendant, tried this Monday, February 26, before the Alès criminal court, had even led a gendarme this summer to use his weapon.

Presented as part of an immediate appearance a month and a half ago, this 26-year-old Grandcombien, who had requested time to prepare his defense, joined, this Monday, February 26, the defendants’ box of the Alès court. As Claire Sarode, the president of the hearing, said from the outset, he is being judged for "a frightening scene" occurring late in the morning of August 2.

The gendarme shoots to try to puncture a tire of the van

The Gard gendarmes then carried out a traffic check north of the capital of the Cévennes, near Saint-Martin-de-Valgégales, on the RN 106, when a white van arrived. The driver phones while driving and they decide to intercept him, near a bridge under construction, where traffic is alternating. But the motorist, getting on the median, fled, forcing his way onto the construction site, even risking knocking over workers and engineers, and flew towards Alès. The four kilometers of the chase are daunting! The driver, while braking, caused a collision with the military car. One of the latter uses his weapon to try, in vain, to puncture a tire of the van. Then, the police manage to overtake him, stop and point their guns towards the "crazy truck" … who turns around and heads back towards La Grand-Combe. This vehicle will finally be found in a path, "embedded in the vegetation", near the photovoltaic park in the Lacoste-Lavabreille area.

A waltz of elements plays against the defendant

The subsequent investigation led the military to this man who was very unfavorably known to the justice system, who was arrested on October 11, in Ardèche, at the wheel of a stolen car. Certainly, as the president mentions, the photos in the file do not clearly show that he was driving, but genetic analyzes work against him, as well as an anonymous denunciation, the roadside check of his cousin just after the facts , during which the passenger ran away, or the incidents of his electronic bracelet on the day of the events.

"It wasn't me at the wheel", the accused defends

The accused defends himself with confidence and reiterates the comments made in police custody: "It wasn't me at the wheel. I don't know what to tell you! It's not me." And genetics ? "There's no only traces of mine, Madame", he replies. "La Grand-Combe is a poor village; everyone lends vehicles…" Claire Sarode focuses on the 19 convictions in the criminal record of this Cévenol who is serving another sentence and should released from detention in January 2026: "One might wonder what can stop you, if not prison…"

The prosecution requires three years of imprisonment

Nathalie Welte, the Deputy Prosecutor of the Republic, believes that we can be "hardly more complete in terms of the evidence against us&quot ; reported against this defendant who "is accustomed to justice"< /em>. Against this man "on the margins of society, rules which must govern it", which "is ready to do anything to avoid being arrested", she requires three years of imprisonment and continued detention.