Prosecutors in Paris have opened a homicide investigation after the driver of a luxury SUV allegedly plowed into a cyclist and crushed him to death after a violent roadside argument in the center of the capital.
“First witness statements indicate that moving the car towards the cyclist was intentional on the part of the driver,” the prosecutor's office said. told BFM-TV on Wednesday. The 52-year-old driver was arrested at the scene on Tuesday evening.
The 27-year-old victim, a member of the Paris Cycling Association, went into cardiac-respiratory arrest after the Mercedes ran over him near La Madeleine church in the evening and emergency responders were said to have been unable to save him.
Witnesses told Le Parisien newspaper that the pair were fighting furiously on the side of busy Boulevard Malesherbes, near the Place de la Madeleine, after the Mercedes cut across the cyclist who was in a marked but unprotected cycle lane.
The cyclist, who had knocked down his bike, hit the bonnet of the car and got into an argument with the driver, causing the two to go their separate ways. Moments later, eight witnesses say, the SUV appeared to head straight for the cyclist.
Witnesses said the car went backwards after hitting the cyclist a second time before moving forward again over the man's body. Eyewitnesses said the driver's teenage daughter was also in the car at the time.
Initial alcohol and drug tests were negative and the man's driver's license was in order, BFM-TV reported, citing police sources.
Jeanne d'Hauteserre, the mayor of the 8th arrondissement where the incident took place, described it as “extraordinary violence” and said that when she arrived at the scene moments later, witnesses were “still on the pavement in shock”.
Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of Paris, who spearheaded a successful plan to drastically reduce car traffic and increase cycling in the capital, said it was “unacceptable in this day and age for someone to die on a bicycle in Paris”.
A Paris deputy mayor, David Belliard, said in X: What happened last night was horrifying… This young man is a new victim of road violence. Cars can drive you crazy. Cars kill. Cyclists and pedestrians are their first victims.
Paris en Sale (Paris in the Saddle), the organization of which the cyclist was a member, called a memorial meeting in the square on Wednesday evening, asking people to place “a flower or a candle” in his memory.
Marian Solett, a spokeswoman, said cyclists were “just as vulnerable road users as pedestrians. We don't have an iron body job to protect us. There is always a lot of tension. Some of our members have shocking stories.
The city council's efforts have helped make Paris one of the world's top dozen or so bike-friendly cities, especially since hundreds of kilometers of new cycle paths have opened in recent years since the lockdown was imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, many motorists are opposed to the changes, which have seriously reduced space for cars on many routes and have been accompanied by other measures to reduce car use, such as increased inner-city parking fees.
