A bar manager is being prosecuted for manslaughter after serving 56 shooters to a customer who died of an alcoholic coma.
He wanted to win an alcohol descent competition. His victory cost him his life. In October, a man died after having swallowed up 56 shooters, these small glasses that contain 5 to 10 cl of strong alcohol. The trial of the bartender, prosecuted for “manslaughter by willful misconduct”, opens today in Clermont-Ferrand.
4 grams of alcohol / liter of blood
The facts date back to October 24, 2014. This Friday evening, Renaud, 57, is a little depressed. Her daughter offers her to go out with her and her friends, as she tells in the local daily The mountain. They settle in a pizzeria, eat, and end the evening in a local bar, the “Starter”.
A few drinks later, the atmosphere rises in the bar. Renaud is in much better shape. “It was then that he saw the large slate, above the counter, on which was registered the record for the number of shooters consumed in the same evening, testifies his daughter. He had to do more than 55. He took up the challenge ”- and won it with a shot. His victory will earn him the honor of seeing his name inscribed on the championship board, as evidenced by this snapshot that the newspaper has obtained.
It is when he arrives at his home, after being accompanied by car, that things get complicated for this father. During the night from Friday to Saturday, he is seized with violent vomiting and sinks into an alcoholic coma. Transported to the emergency room, he died in hospital of cardiac arrest, with a blood alcohol level of 4 grams per liter of blood.
“More than 12! “
Today, the manager of the “Starter” is accused of having pushed Renaud to drink alcohol and thus hastened his death. After losing her father, the young girl has indeed decided to file a complaint against him. “These glasses, no one put them in his mouth,” she admits. But there are things, like the slate displaying the record, which encouraged one to overbid, it is obvious ”. Moreover, while Renaud had more and more difficulty in his shooters, the barman would have whispered in his ear: “more than 12!” “.
A version denied by the defense, who claims that the manager asked the man to stop, to no avail. “You can not either, when you are the owner of an establishment, when there is an order that has been placed, check who is drinking what, insisted his lawyer. You can’t be behind every customer. There is a responsibility of customers and those around them ”.
In the pages of La Montagne, the manager wants to clear his customs. “These contests are not my idea. It’s something between my clients, often young people, who like to challenge themselves in this style ”.
Bartenders responsible for customers?
“The simple fact of serving alcohol to a drunken person is a contravention”, recalled, at the material time, the deputy public prosecutor of Clermont-Ferrand on the site of France Info. In fact, theArticle L3353-2 of the Public Health Code indicates that “the fact for the vendors of drinks to give to drink to obviously drunk people or to receive them in their establishments is punished with the fine envisaged for the tickets of the 4th class” (namely 750 euros maximum).
The qualification of the facts as manslaughter is, on the other hand, non-assistance to a person in danger and incitement to consumption. This interpretation of the law is at the heart of the trial which opens on Monday.
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