Mother Seeks Justice for 7-Year-Old Son’s Fatal Elevator Accident in French Housing Project

The facts date back to October 10, 2015 in the Val-Fourré district. Late in the day, as Othmane had taken the elevator to go down the seven floors and join his older brother outside in the Val-Fourré district, he found himself stuck between the 1st floor and the ground floor. "The wheel of his scooter blocked in the abnormal gap between the doors, the device straightens up, the little boy finds himself pinned against the wall, the handlebars under his neck"... Othmane dies of asphyxiation, recalls Bondyblog.fr. After more than an hour of searching, his uncle and residents of the neighborhood discover his body. The cause of the child’s death was a malfunction in the elevator doors.

This is the beginning of a long legal battle for Othmane’s family. The two defendants are the landlord Epic Mantes Yvelines Habitat and the elevator company Otis. The latter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and fined 60,000 euros at first instance in late 2018. The Versailles Criminal Court upheld this conviction on appeal in May 2020. As for the landlord, he was granted an acquittal without the possibility for the family to appeal or initiate new proceedings due to the liquidation and dissolution of the company. This is "a maneuver to escape their responsibility," says Soumia Esshaymi, Othmane’s mother. "The elevator was very often out of order, once when I was pregnant it was stuck for two months. There were always problems," recalls the forty-year-old.

Shortly after, the elevator company manages to overturn the decision on a procedural flaw. The sentence handed down by the Court of Cassation was therefore overturned in December 2021. Another blow for the family. "I don’t know why they’re putting me through another trial, it’s too hard," says Othmane’s mother. "Today I’m waiting for exemplary convictions. I owe it to my son. And also because this kind of accident must never happen again," she confides, after launching an online petition, which has already collected more than 18,000 signatures.