No further investigation into a lack of maintenance of the collapsed balcony in Angers

This request was made to the investigating chamber by the lawyers of two of the five indicted and by those of the victims and their families. All felt that the expertises and the investigation of the two Angers investigating judges had too quickly ruled out the hypothesis of a lack of maintenance of the balconies and called for investigations in this direction.

One of the young people injured in the accident, who had himself been a tenant in the apartment where the tragedy took place, had reported that this balcony was moving, a few months before the tragedy.

In their decision, the judges explain that the construction defects noted by the expertises were not detectable, even by professionals, and that it is therefore not certain that the measure of the danger would have been taken, with appropriate measures. .

Unless there is an appeal in cassation, this decision closes the investigation which only awaits the order of referral to the criminal court for unintentional homicides and injuries.

Five people are indicted in this case: the architect Frédéric Rolland, the manager of the masonry company Patrick Bonnel and two employees of his company (a works foreman and a site foreman), as well as the person in charge of affair of the Apave, the construction and installation control body.

The prosecution requested in March the referral to correctional of the five protagonists for homicides and unintentional injuries.

On the evening of October 15, 2016, around thirty young people participated in a housewarming party in an apartment located on the third floor of a building in the center of Angers. While eighteen of them were on the balcony, it had suddenly come loose, dragging down the balconies on the lower floors.

The appraisals carried out on this residential building, built in 1996 and 1997, showed significant construction defects and the balcony reinforcement.