During an interrogation on September 26, transcribed by Le Parisien, Pierre Palmade answered the investigating judge’s questions about the accident
Pierre Palmade has always been silent about the accident in which he was involved, which occurred on February 10, 2023. He has never spoken to the media about his point of view in this case, in which he is indicted, at the moment for involuntary manslaughter (this charge could be dropped) and unintentional injury. But Le Parisien transcribed the interrogation in front of the investigating judge on September 26, in which the 54-year-old artist returns in detail to his feelings about the accident.
The comedian does not minimize his fault in the accident: “I ruined the life of a family,” he reacted. The accident left three serious victims: the driver who still needs to undergo several operations, his 6-year-old son who almost died and suffered severe head trauma, and a pregnant woman who lost her unborn child and is suffering today of a “severe depressive picture”. It’s monstrous. I go to sleep and I get up with that, honestly,” reacted Pierre Palmade.
If the unborn child died before childbirth and is not, in the legal sense of the term, considered alive, Pierre Palmade nevertheless considers himself “responsible for the death of a child (…) My accident killed this baby in her womb. Whether he died before or after delivery, the result is the same, it’s my fault.” However, this could result in the charges of manslaughter being dropped, and reduce the comedian’s sentence during the trial scheduled for spring 2024.
Pierre Palmade does not remember the moment of the accident, saying he “suffers from total amnesia” between the moment he gets into his car and the moment he wakes up in the hospital. However, he admits to spending two days partying and using drugs, 3M™ and cocaine, before the accident. Despite everything, the comedian and actor assured the judge that he felt “fit” to drive.
At the wheel of his Peugeot 3008, Pierre Palmade veered into the oncoming lane and collided with a family’s vehicle, whose driving was not at fault. Furthermore, no external failure can explain the collision, whether that of Palmade’s vehicle or the road, nor the weather. “I suppose total exhaustion,” Palmade justified to the judge, recalling that he spent “three days of drug use without sleeping.”
Speaking to the investigating judge last September, Pierre Palmade spoke in detail about his drug addiction which has lasted for 30 years and his desire to get out of it. “I had fallen very deep into drugs, into heavy drug addiction.” However, he acknowledges having experienced an episode of relapse last June, and having subsequently requested on his own to be hospitalized again during the summer: “It’s the heart of illness and addiction. I can being eaten away an hour before by the accident and the injured, as long as I am not two centimeters from the wolf’s mouth, I do not see the danger. (…) It is anything but casual. I understand that this is seen as scandalous.”
Pierre Palmade can’t imagine getting back on stage or resuming the life of an artist after what happened. In the meantime, the 54-year-old actor continues to receive treatment and awaits trial, which is expected to take place in spring 2024.
