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Paris tourist boat skipper sentenced in fatal crash

The skipper of a Bateaux Mouches tourist boat that was involved in a fatal crash on the River Seine was sentenced by a French court on Tuesday.

Published: 17 June 2015 08:18 CEST
Paris tourist boat skipper sentenced in fatal crash
A Bateaux Mouches tourist boat on the river Seine, thhe scene of a fatal crash in 2008. Photo: AFP

A French court on Tuesday handed down a three-year suspended prison sentence to the skipper of a Bateaux Mouches tourist boat that crashed into a smaller vessel on the River Seine in 2008, killing one man and a young boy.

The court also awarded €790,000 ($887,000) to the victims and their families and banned the vessel's skipper Florent Bonnin, 47, from holding a boating licence for three years.

Bonnin's 60-metre-long (196-foot) tourist vessel slammed into a smaller pleasure craft, sending it crashing into the pillar of a bridge over the Seine.

Bonnin was found guilty of manslaughter and unintentional injury in connection with the crash that happened within sight of Notre Dame cathedral.

The smaller boat, which had 12 people aboard, sank almost immediately after the collision. A 45-year-old man at the helm and a six-year-old boy were trapped underwater and died.

Olivier Travert, the father of the boy killed in the crash, said he felt justice had been done, adding the case served as a lesson.

“The Seine is a motorway where there are rules to follow. Just because you transport thousands of people doesn't mean the Seine belongs to you,” Travert said.

“Those of us with our own boats are allowed to sail too,” he added. 

The other 10 people on board — five adults and five children, all of them French — were plucked from the water immediately after the boat sank.

The court explained Bonnin was responsible for the crash because he was speeding, did not keep safe distance and was at the wheel under the influence of marijuana.

Victims of the crash and their families had sought more than 1.7 million euros from Bateaux-Mouches as well as European Armament and Charter (EAA), the company managing the boat crews.

The court on Tuesday ordered both companies as well as Bonnin to pay the €790,000 to the victims and their families.

Lawyers for the pilot and companies said they would consider an appeal.

Experts who testified in the case said the crash was at least partly due to the length of the Bateaux-Mouches boat, but also Bonnin's fatigue.

The skipper had worked 13 hours with one break, making the company's scheduling partly responsible for the crash, according to one expert heard by the court.

Lawyer Aurelie Cerceau, who represented the father of the boy killed in the crash, said the court's ruling had provided a measure of closure.

“The court has made things right. The skipper is guilty. The companies have been held responsible and my client can finally see his son rest in peace,” she said.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Almost 800,000 fewer UK holidaymakers have visited Spain in 2023 when compared to 2019. What’s behind this big drop?

Published: 23 August 2023 11:36 CEST
Updated: 26 August 2023 18:32 CEST
Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Spain welcomed 12.2 million UK tourists between January and July 2023, 6 percent less when compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released on Monday by Spanish tourism association Turespaña.

This represents a decrease of 793,260 British holidaymakers for Spain so far this year.

Conversely, the number of Italian (+8 percent), Irish (+15.3 percent), Portuguese (+24.8 percent), Dutch (+4 percent) and French tourists (+5 percent) visiting España in 2023 are all above the rates in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. 

German holidaymakers are together with their British counterparts the two main nationalities showing less interest in coming to Spanish shores.

Britons still represent the biggest tourist group that comes to Spain, but it’s undergoing a slump, with another recent study by Caixabank Research suggesting numbers fell particularly in June 2023 (-12.5 percent of the usual rate). 

READ ALSO: Spain fully booked for summer despite most expensive holiday prices ever

So are some Britons falling out of love with Spain? Are there clear reasons why a holiday on the Spanish coast is on fewer British holiday itineraries?

According to Caixabank Research’s report, the main reasons are “the poor macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom, the sharp rise in rates and the weakness of the pound”.

This is evidenced in the results of a survey by British market research company Savanta, which found that one in six Britons are not going on a summer holiday this year due to the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Practically everything, everywhere has become more expensive, and that includes holidays in Spain: hotel stays are up 44 percent, eating out is 13 percent pricier, and flights are 40 percent more on average. 

READ ALSO: How much more expensive is it to holiday in Spain this summer?

Caixabank stressed that another reason for the drop in British holidaymakers heading to Spain is that those who can afford a holiday abroad are choosing “more competitive markets” such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal. 

And there’s no doubt that the insufferably hot summer that Spain is having, with four heatwaves so far, has also dissuaded many holidaymakers from Blighty from overcooking in the Spanish sun. 

With headlines such as “This area of Spain could become too hot for tourists” or “tourists say it’s too hot to see any sights” featuring in the UK press, budding British holidaymakers are all too aware of the suffocating weather conditions Spain and other Mediterranean countries are enduring. 

Other UK outlets have urged travellers to try out the cooler Spanish north rather than the usual piping hot Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol destinations.

Another UK poll by InsureandGo found that 71 percent of the 2,000+ British respondents thought that parts of Europe such as Spain, Greece and Turkey will be too hot to visit over summer by 2027.

There’s further concern that the introduction in 2024 of the new (and delayed) ETIAS visa for non-EU visitors, which of course now also applies to UK nationals, could further compel British tourists to choose countries to holiday in rather than Spain.

READ MORE: Will British tourists need to pay for a visa waiver to enter Spain?

However, a drop in the number of British holidaymakers may not be all that bad for Spain, even though they did spend over €17 billion on their Spanish vacations in 2022. 

Towns, cities and islands across the country have been grappling with the problem of overtourism and the consequences it has on everything from quality of life for locals to rent prices. 

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’ – Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

The overcrowded nature of Spain’s beaches and most beautiful holiday hotspots appears to be one of the reasons why Germans are visiting Spain in far fewer numbers. A recent report in the country’s most read magazine Stern asked “if the dream is over” in their beloved Mallorca.

Spanish authorities are also seeking to overhaul the cheaper holiday package-driven model that dominates many resorts, which includes moving away from the boozy antics of young British and other European revellers.

Fewer tourists who spend more are what Spain is theoretically now looking for, and the rise in American, Japanese and European tourists other than Brits signify less of a dependence on the British market, one which tends to maintain the country’s tourism status quo for better or for worse.

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