Story By: Georgina Jadikovska, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
A French medicine student not used to drínking was struck dead by a truck on a motorway near his parents’ house after he reportedly came back from a student initiation party, and decided to take a selfie on the road.
The young man named Simon Guermonprez, 20, was found dead on the A27 autoroute in the French community of Chereng on 9th July, 2021.
According to local media, the drunk student was attending an initiation evening that involved being encouraged to drink lots of alcohol at the Citadel in the city of Lille. He took the metro to the Triolo station in the community of Villeneuve-d’Ascq where he called an Uber that left him at his parents’ house.
But then, instead of joining his family, he decided to head towards a nearby highway bridge located about 500 metres away from the house to take a selfie, and police believe while there he dropped his mobile on the asphalt.
As the drunken young man was rushing to get his phone, he failed to notice the huge truck heading towards him and was not fast enough to escape on time, and he was killed instantly.
An investigation by the police later confirmed the circumstances which initially had been linked with a possible suicide.
Shocked by the investigation results, Simon’s father Daniel Guermonprez pointed out that his son had never enjoyed alcohol before and suspected that the boy must have been pressured into drinking.
It was not revealed what his blood alcohol level was but he was reported as very drunk at the time.
the dad claimed that his son “did not like it [alcohol] and did not know what it was like to be drunk”.
Motivated by the tragic turn of events, the father wants to turn his son’s death into a campaign against alcohol consumption at initiation evenings.
Daniel wrote on his Facebook profile on 14th July: “Simon, you left because of human stupidity and [I] hope that these organizers can now understand and admit that we must immediately remove these alcoholic traditions during these parties, which make no sense in 2021.”
Simon’s parents discussed with deputies and wrote a letter to Minister of Higher Education Frederique Vidal where they demanded to meet student representatives and higher education institutions to reassess the current measures currently in order to avoid tragedies of such kind.
No response from the minister has been given so far.
