The family of three sisters who died when they were hit by traffic on a busy motorway on Friday evening plans to file a complaint against train company SNCF, accusing them of behaving irresponsibly by throwing them off a train.

"/> The family of three sisters who died when they were hit by traffic on a busy motorway on Friday evening plans to file a complaint against train company SNCF, accusing them of behaving irresponsibly by throwing them off a train.

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DEATH

Family anger over death of three sisters

The family of three sisters who died when they were hit by traffic on a busy motorway on Friday evening plans to file a complaint against train company SNCF, accusing them of behaving irresponsibly by throwing them off a train.

Published: 19 March 2012 09:43 CET
Family anger over death of three sisters
Thomas Bresson

The three sisters, aged 12, 13 and 19, were forced off a train by inspectors when they were found to be travelling without tickets.

Three uncles of the girls have instructed a lawyer to issue a complaint to national train operator SNCF for its failure to act in accordance with guidelines over the treatment of young people travelling without tickets.

“This complaint is directed at the SNCF inspector and the company who ought to have informed police given the involvement of minors,” said the family’s lawyer on Monday, reported radio station Europe 1.

Around midnight on Friday, Carmen, aged 12, Charlotte, 13 and Victorine, 19, were walking along the A7 autoroute which runs between the southern cities of Lyon and Marseille.

An employee of the company running the motorway reported that he saw the girls while patrolling the stretch of motorway.

He spoke to the girls and asked them to walk behind the barriers but they refused.

They were later hit by cars as they ran across the motorway.

The three girls lived in Marseille and were part of the city’s traveller community.

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ENVIRONMENT

French trains ditch plastic water bottles

French national train operator SNCF has announced it will no longer sell water in plastic bottles on its services, saying the move would reduce the waste from roughly two million drinks.

Published: 15 October 2021 11:36 CEST
French train bars will no longer be able to see plastic bottles of water.
French train bars will no longer be able to see plastic bottles of water. Photo: BERTRAND LANGLOIS / AFP.

The plastic packaging will be replaced with recyclable cardboard for still water and aluminium for sparkling.

“Plastic is no longer fantastic,” head of consumer travel operations at the SNCF, Alain Krakovitch, wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

France has gradually increased restrictions on single-use packaging to help reduce waste amid growing evidence about the impact of plastic on sea life in particular.

The government announced on Monday that plastic packaging will be banned for nearly all fruit and vegetables from January next year.

The environment ministry said that 37 percent of fruit and vegetables were sold with plastic packaging, and only the most fragile produce such as strawberries will be given an exemption on the ban until 2026.

“We use an outrageous amount of single-use plastic in our daily lives,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that it was working to cut back “the use of throwaway plastic and boost its substitution by other materials or reusable and recyclable packaging.”

Last year, France passed a wide-ranging “circular economy” law to combat waste that forbids retailers from destroying unsold clothes and will ban all single-use plastic containers by 2040.

Paris city authorities announced this week that they were aiming to eliminate all plastic from state day-care centres, canteens and retirement homes by 2026.

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