Three teenagers drowned in a house pool in Alès, Gard, after their car skidded in the rain during a night of joyriding and a brief police chase. The victims, aged 14, 15, and 19, were engaged in risky behavior, including substance use. Autopsies show alcohol and cannabis traces in one of them.
The tragedy unfolded in the night from Tuesday, December 3, to Wednesday, December 4, 2025, in Alès. Prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini stated that the three youths spent much of the evening doing 'rodéos,' with sudden starts and high-speed back-and-forths. Around midnight, under torrential rain, their car encountered a police patrol, sparking a brief chase of a few hundred meters. The anticrime brigade (BAC) officers soon lost sight of the vehicle in the neighborhoods to avoid unnecessary risks.
An hour later, around 1:30 a.m., the fatal crash occurred. The car missed a turn on a slippery road, smashed through a low wall, and landed in a house's swimming pool, wheels upward. Trapped inside, the teenagers could not escape. The alert was only raised at 6 a.m. by the home's residents.
The victims included a 14-year-old boy in the front, unknown to the justice system; a 19-year-old also in the front, positive for cannabis and alcohol (0.7 g/l blood), with a juvenile record for narcotics; and a 15-year-old in the back, from Nevers, on the run after custody and escaping youth protection services. Several canisters of nitrous oxide, or 'laughing gas,' were found in the cabin, and ongoing tests will check for consumption. Further expertise will identify the driver.
'They didn't stop going back and forth for much of the night. They were seen doing rodéo, sudden starts,' Grini told AFP. This case highlights recent dangers of nitrous oxide in road accidents.