Tragic Loss: Parents Seek Truth in 3-Year-Old’s Fatal Paris Garbage Truck Accident

Omar’s parents are unable to mourn the loss of their 3-year-old child. On Friday, they joined the civil party. "My clients hope for nothing more than the truth about the chronology of this tragedy," explains Ilyacine Maallaoui, the family’s lawyer. They hope that the investigation, now led by the judicial processing service of accidents at the Paris police headquarters under the direction of an investigating judge, will shed light on this case. "For now, they have to deal with the immense void left by the loss of their child. A death in circumstances that defy words, an hour and a half of agony under the wheels of a garbage truck," Maallaoui elaborates.

The tragedy occurred on Sunday, July 20, around 6 p.m. in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, on Rue Claude-Decaen and affected Omar and his 22-year-old aunt. They had just left the grandmother’s home to return home. The 3-year-old boy was riding his scooter. As he was crossing at a pedestrian crossing, he was hit by a garbage truck. The young woman accompanying the child is said to have screamed to try to alert the driver, reports Le Parisien, adding that "it took the firefighters nearly an hour and a half to free little Omar’s foot, trapped under the truck." After being rushed to the Robert-Debré hospital (19th arrondissement), Omar succumbed to his injuries around 8:30 p.m.

His aunt got away with a few injuries. She will have to go to the emergency room this week for medical examinations. "When I’m told about the scene, I say to myself: how could the driver not have seen them?" confided Omar’s mother the day after the tragedy. The residents of the neighborhood also mentioned the dangerousness of the accident site. "The intersection is poorly laid out. The pedestrian crossing is poorly designed," said Christophe, a tobacconist whose shop is a few meters from the scene of the accident. "Before, the garbage trucks didn’t go through this narrow little street."

After the accident, the truck driver, a man close to retirement, was arrested and then indicted for vehicular homicide - a term that replaced involuntary manslaughter under the law adopted in early July 2025. The judicial investigation also covers the facts of "road injuries with incapacity not exceeding three months," concerning Omar’s aunt. The alleged perpetrator of the accident was placed under judicial supervision with a driving ban, a ban on contact with the victim’s family, and an obligation to receive care. The alcohol and drug screening tests carried out after the accident were negative.

Two surveillance cameras are located at the level of the street, but the images would not be usable due to a tree obstructing the scene of the accident. Contacted by the French newspaper, the City of Paris had indicated that it would "provide all its support to the authorities in charge of the investigation" and that it would wait "for the conclusions before determining whether a possible suspension should be initiated." The driver involved "will not be reassigned to driving until the end of the investigation," the municipality also specified.

The family only demands one thing: justice for Omar.