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news
Tour de France spectator with placard“I’m ashamed, I regret my stupidity” says spectator who caused Tour de France crash
The spectator who caused a huge crash at the Tour de France on Saturday has said, “I’m ashamed, I regret my stupidity.”
The 31-year-old, who was released from 24 hours’ custody this afternoon after turning herself in yesterday, was speaking at a press conference outside court in Brest today, reports Ouest-France.
The French woman, who lives with her partner in the north of the Finistere, caused the crash when, her back to the peloton, she held out a placard with the words “Allez Opi-Omi, which she explained was a message to her grandmother, originally from Germany and a huge fan of the Tour.
With nowhere to go, Tony Martin of Jumbo-Visma crashed into the woman, and on a narrow road dozens of riders were brought down, including Team DSM rider Jasha Sutterlin, who had to abandon with a broken wrist, and Marc Soler of Movistar, who completed the stage but was found to have fractures in both arms and did not start the next day.
A fan just caused a MASSIVE crash at the very beginning of the Tour De France 😬 pic.twitter.com/6q5TwQRBdU
— Blake Harms (@wxblakeharms) June 26, 2021
Camille Miansoni, public prosecutor for Brest, said a decision will now be taken on how to proceed against the spectator, whom he said was not previously known to the police or the judiciary, and that any action taken “would be proportionate to the seriousness of the case and the personality of the perpetrator.”
She potentially faces a charge “unintentional injuries with incapacity not exceeding three months by manifestly willful breach of an obligation of safety or caution,” which could lead to a fine of €1,500.
However, if any injured party files a complaint – as Soler has indicated he may do – that could rise to €15,000 and a one-year jail sentence. The pro riders’ union, the CPA, has filed an official complaint with police, but Tour de France organisers ASO today withdrew its own complaint against her, with the race’s deputy director, Pierre-Yves Thouault, saying it had decided to draw a line under the issue after the media onslaught the spectator faced afterwards.
“Attention must be focused on the riders, not the public,” he said, adding that spectators must “scrupulously respect the safety rules.”
The woman, accompanied by her partner, turned herself in to the Gendarmerie in Landernau, the town that hosted the finish of the opening stage – the crash happened with 45km remaining, and she sustained an injured arm – yesterday just before officers were due to arrive at her home to arrest her.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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23 comments
It will be interesting to see under which legal provision this unfortunate woman is prosecuted, unless there are certain Napoleonic-code byelaws enacted specifically for the passage of the Tour. As far as I am aware, stupidity is not a crime in France - and nor should it be.
Perhaps the publicity alone surrounding this incident might be sufficient to dissuade other spectators - or perhaps ASO should take some responsibility for the walls of cheering, fist waving, often pissed spectators that line the roads, especially on the haute climbs where riders are already at their physical edge. Indeed, the real miracle is that this doesn't happen more frequently.
Perhaps her punishment should be to hand out the flowers to the winner following each stage?
Might present a conflict of interest....
I think she should be broken on a wheel, disembowelled, hanged, drowned, and then placed in the comfy chair and prodded with soft cushions.
I was scowling, and then realised how funny this is.
Unless you're actually serious..
My head hurts
But only if she floats
Maybe before everybody rushes to judgement, this womans mental faculty should be taken into account. After the initial anger at witnessing the agony, pain and suffering this stupid and dangerous act caused a closer look would indicate she clearly has at the very least a cognitive disfuntion. Where were the people who should be looking after her where was her partner, surely there are marshals for crowded areas of the course, where were they?
I think everyone should follow, then unfollow her on Twitter and Instagram.
That'll teach her a lesson she'll never forget 😉
I is down wid da yuff, dawg 😀
another version of "sorry mate i didn't see you"
Well they didn't have hiviz.....
As much as I think there should be a punitive response to her actions I think they will have a hard time proving that she 'wilfully breached' any safety regulations. It will definitely put an unwelcome spotlight on the ASO and French officials as to how they conduct and enforce those regulations and create a safe environment for competitors and spectators alike. Which I'm guessing is why the ASO have withdrawn their complaint.
Apart from causing the crash. The next worst thing she could have done was do a runner.... And she ran.
Had she took responsibility for her actions from the start. Stayed where she was and waited for stewards, police or the event organisers to turn up and sort things out rather than running away, people wouldnt be half as mad. Its still no less a catastrophe even if she did wait.
She handed herself in albeit we dont know if it was a friend or family member that ratted her out to put pressure on her to hand herself in.
Apart from all the negative and toxic comments about her and directed at her on social media. The cloud of shame is going to be following her around for a long long time.
Let that be her punishment.
What she did was daft. Lots of other people probably did similar that day, but they were lucky there weren't consequences.
Those of us who recognise we're not perfect, and have done stupid things, have a good deal of sympathy for this person's public humiliation.
Agreed, this seems more of a PR stunt or witch hunt to me. It was stupid, but spectators have been doing stupid things at cycling races for years. Running alongside riders, setting off flares, letting dogs get loose, and even chucking urine over Chris Froome.
These events are held on open roads, there is little that can be done to police them, but hopefully, this encourages spectators not to get too close to the action.
Let that be her punishment
This is pretty much the same as 'I will have to live with the death of that cyclist for the rest of my life' (or a couple of days, whichever is the lesser), and 'punishing the driver won't bring him back'.
Let some proper punishment be her punishment. Let's hope the injured riders make their own complaints.
Apart from there were no deaths, injuries relatively minor, and financial cost to race and teams covered by insurance.
other than that exactly the same as bereavement caused by negligent operation of 2 ton vehicles.
Me, I'm saving my condemnation for the organisers who fail again and again to mitigate this utterly predictable risk. She was a fool in the moment. They are despicably negligent, hypocritical and cowardly fools every facking event.
Absolutely. I can't see how she will get some 'proper punishment' as I can see any attempted prosecution failing. Yes she was stupid, but her defence lawyer already said they would be putting ASO straight under the spotlight due to their catalogue of errors over the years causing much worse accidents. That's why ASO withdrew their initial demands.
She literally had only half a foot on the carriageway, there were no barriers, and we all know there are no announcements or 'contract' between the organisers and spectators, it's a public road with only a rolling road block and NO supervision or policing of any spectators for the vast majority of each stage.
Dont get me wrong, I'm not an apologist for this woman's stupid behaviour, just realistic that it would be very difficult to actually gain a successful prosecution without opening a complete Pandora's box regarding how the race is organised, conducted and spectators policed by ASO. How will they claim that she was reckless with half a foot on the carriageway when you see the mountain roads jammed with spectators all over the road with barely a cyclist's width for the competitors to ride through?
It wasn't her foot that caused the accident, it was her arm holding a large sign, directly in the path of the oncoming cyclists.. only someone mentally impaired or grossly immature could not have realised the danger caused by such action.
If she's either then she's not accountable.
I doubt that the teams are insured for damage. Besides, the entire idea that insured damage is free is a fallacy, because insurers increase their rates the more damage is claimed.
I doubt they are insured for anything during the race. They are so high speed and so unpredictable that I doubt even a specialist insurer would touch it with a barge pole. Pre-race & post race and in transit for the kit probably not sure the riders. Insurers hate things they can't statistically predict and measure.
I'll concede the insurance point only then.
Although I daresay that the insurers won't insure for 3rd party non-race related damage is telling.. They can predict the likelihood of this type of interaction. With the neglect of the organisers implementing any crowd control measure, it's every facking tour..... Hence they won't insure for it.
'The woman, accompanied by her partner, turned herself in to the Gendarmerie in Landernau, the town that hosted the finish of the opening stage – the crash happened with 45km remaining, and she sustained an injured arm – yesterday just before officers were due to arrive at her home to arrest her.'
So, she knew she was found out and handed herself in rather than deal with the ignominy of being arrested at her home, likely in front of neighbours and media camera's - I think it's safe to assume that if no-one recognised her silly mug from the video, she would have persisted with her original reaction of running away and avoiding the consequences of her stupidity.
Being required to make restitution for financial loss is not punishment.