Source: AFP
For a decade, French former daycare worker Sophie Rollet has conducted her own, solitary investigation to hold American automotive equipment group Goodyear responsible for the death of her husband, Jean-Paul, in a crash linked to its tires company.
The 50-year-old mother-of-three’s work finally paid off last week as authorities raided Goodyear sites in Europe, including its Brussels headquarters, as part of a manslaughter investigation.
In her stone house in Geney, a village in eastern France, Rollet sat every day for years in front of a computer she used to meticulously track facts, data and articles about all the traffic accidents linked to blowouts of a particular model of Goodyear tires.
Jean-Paul died on July 25, 2014 on the A36 in the eastern part of the Doubs at the age of 53.
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He was on his way home after completing a delivery when his tanker was hit by a reversing semi-trailer after its left front tire blew out. Both drivers died instantly.
Rollet’s research led her to link the tire model, the Goodyear Marathon LHS II, to several other accidents in France and Europe.
“Ten years of working against the grain, almost completely alone… I often asked myself, ‘what door haven’t I knocked on?'” said the calm but determined woman.
“Courage and perseverance”
After her husband’s case was initially closed, Rollet filed a manslaughter lawsuit in 2016 and turned over her personal findings to Besançon city prosecutors.
The case was handed over to an expert. His analysis of the tire concluded that the blowout that caused the semi-trailer to lose control was due to a manufacturing defect and not an external factor.
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“This expert opinion fundamentally changed the case as it validated the findings of Mrs. Rollet,” Besançon prosecutor Etienne Mandeau recalled.
Manteaux likened Rollet to Erin Brockovich, the American activist whose legal battle against a major American corporation was immortalized in a movie starring Julia Roberts.
“Her determination was central to the investigations moving forward,” he said, hailing her “courage and tenacity”.
Prosecutors in Besançon have since added two other cases to their investigation involving similar accidents that killed two people.
Media coverage and a documentary about her legal crusade prompted another whistleblower, who remains anonymous, to give authorities a USB key containing internal documents suggesting Goodyear knew about defects in some tire models and tried to cover it up.
“I did my part”
On Tuesday, authorities searched Goodyear’s European office in Brussels, a site in France and the factory that produces the tires in question in Luxembourg.
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Goodyear said it was “fully cooperating” with authorities.
“For me it’s a kind of achievement, a relief,” Rollet said, feeling she had “finally” passed the baton on the case.
But the trained firefighter said she also felt frustrated.
“Justice won’t be perfect,” Rollet said. “We will never be able to identify all the victims 10 years later.”
Rollet, however, said it is “time to put some distance between me and this case, which has been quite demanding.”
“You can’t confuse determination with stubbornness.”
Rollet is now training to become an accountant, but still occasionally goes to schools and businesses to speak about road safety.
“I did my part,” he said. “I just turned 50 and today I want to do some self-reflection.”
Source: AFP