Local French-language daily Monaco Matin reports that a cyclist charged with manslaughter has been freed by Monaco’s Criminal Court.
The public prosecutor had asked for a one-year suspended prison sentence for causing the death of a 77 year-old pedestrian on February 3, 2018. The woman died in hospital 47 days after the collision, the court was told.
The cyclist was travelling in the direction of Menton when the victim stepped out into the road near the Château d’Azur bus stop on the blvd. d’Italie. She was more than 16 metres from a pedestrian crossing. “When she appeared in my vision it was impossible to avoid her,” he told the court. He had told the police he had been travelling at less than 20 kph.
The prosecutor said that the cyclist’s first reaction was to send a bill for the damage to his bicycle to the family of the victim. “This individual is not a gentleman,” the counsel for the family said.
No cameras or other evidence exists to cast the cyclist’s version of events into doubt, and after a lengthy deliberation the court dismissed the manslaughter charge.
