Volvo Cars guilty of manslaughter
An appeals court in France on Thursday affirmed a €200,000 ($300,000) fine against Volvo Cars, finding the Swedish automaker guilty of manslaughter in a case resulting from a fatal 1999 car crash.
The court upheld a previous ruling that found that faulty brakes on the Volvo 850 TDI vehicle indirectly caused the accident, in which a French schoolteacher ran over and killed two young children on their way to school in eastern France.
The court also confirmed the sentence handed to the driver, Catherine Kohtz, 57, who received a six-month suspended prison sentence and a €300 fine, and had her licence temporarily revoked for failure to control her vehicle.
"The most important thing for my client is that Volvo's guilt has been recognised, after years of legal procedures," said Kohtz's lawyer Thierry Cahn.
"The accident stemmed from a failure in the braking system, as she insisted from the beginning."
The appeal court ordered the ruling to be published in two French national newspapers.
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The court upheld a previous ruling that found that faulty brakes on the Volvo 850 TDI vehicle indirectly caused the accident, in which a French schoolteacher ran over and killed two young children on their way to school in eastern France.
The court also confirmed the sentence handed to the driver, Catherine Kohtz, 57, who received a six-month suspended prison sentence and a €300 fine, and had her licence temporarily revoked for failure to control her vehicle.
"The most important thing for my client is that Volvo's guilt has been recognised, after years of legal procedures," said Kohtz's lawyer Thierry Cahn.
"The accident stemmed from a failure in the braking system, as she insisted from the beginning."
The appeal court ordered the ruling to be published in two French national newspapers.
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