Politique Internationale — The accident in which you lost your leg happened exactly four years ago, on 27 October 2018. This autumn in 2022, you will start a new season as a high- performance athlete.
Pauline Déroulède — In the days following my accident, I set myself a goal: to take part in the Paris 2024 Games playing wheelchair tennis. I started playing tennis at a very young age. It has always been ‟my” sport and it has helped me get back on track. This is not to say that wheelchair tennis was the obvious choice: in the beginning I considered it as limiting, without a sufficiently physical dimension for me. Bit by bit, I eliminated these prejudices. There is a pleasure in gliding in wheelchair tennis, not very different from what an able-bodied person can find on a clay court. In June 2021, I became French champion for the first time and I confirmed the title this year. For several months now, I have been in the world’s Top 30, recently reaching 16th place. This goal of competing in the Paris Paralympics is in my sights more than ever. It rewards my investment: two to four hours of tennis a day, plus physical preparation: strength training, endurance, crossfit, etc.
P. I. — To what extent does this new life as an athlete take your mind off the day you were hit by a car?
P. D. — It’s very simple: on the 27th of every month I think about the accident, what happened, the consequences, the upheavals that shook my life. The 27th of October is a special day: with my friend Typhaine, we try to make this day as sweet as possible, to spice it up with little moments that are joyful enough not to let a black veil darken the horizon. Dates are very important to me: I walked with an artificial leg for the first time on 27 February, I became French wheelchair tennis champion on 27 June. These are almost benchmarks in my later life.
P. I. — You’re waiting quietly on your scooter when you are hit, your helmet thrown several metres. Everything is frozen in your memory.
P. D. — I didn’t forget anything because I was conscious most of the time. Just after the impact, after being hurtled 50 meters from the accident site, I saw my leg had been torn off; I realised instantly that I would never be able to walk again as I did before, nor, above all, lead the same life. And if I had any illusions, I lost them immediately even before entering the operating room. I was told that it would be impossible to work miracles, that the medical team would not be able to stick my leg back on. I was 27 years old, leading the ordinary life of a young Parisian woman, a life that suited me very well. In an instant, I fell into an ‟extra-ordinary” life, in the original sense of the word. I still feel nostalgic about my former life. If only because of my professional life: I was working in the audiovisual industry as an assistant director, which meant I had to run around a lot.
P. I. — Your resilience is admirable, as is your background: people think of you as an inspiring young woman, according to the accepted terminology. Did you suspect that you had these resources in yourself?
P. D. — The human brain is well designed. The post-traumatic shock gradually relegates the initial trauma to the background. Then I did a lot of work: it included EMDR therapy (editor’s note: a sensory method to lighten the emotional load); in my case, the sessions proved highly effective. Finally, sport was a powerful lever to rebuild my life, with the objective and intermediate steps I mentioned before. I am naturally energetic and I quickly realised that I had no choice: my leg was gone, I would have to make do without it. During eight months in hospital, including four months in rehabilitation, I discovered a real family: that of the Percy military hospital (Hauts- de-Seine), where they treat soldiers with extremely severe injuries. Not only did I have no choice but to accept my new situation, but I also had no right to complain: there were people around me who were injured and knocked around far worse than I was. Broken people who had to rebuild their lives and whose everyday struggle you could appreciate. You are not alone in the physio room, you are among comrades who are all struggling together with a team to help them. This environment is not inconsequential: independently of my personal will, the physiotherapists almost had to slow me down so that I wouldn’t rush through my rehabilitation stages.
P. I. — In parallel with your struggles to rebuild yourself physically, you have started another fight: for improved road safety. At what point did you feel it was appropriate to get involved in this?
P. D. — This initiative didn’t come about overnight. The first person to make his voice heard was my father. The way he acted was instantaneous: he reacted like a father whose daughter had just been in a serious traffic accident and it was a way for him to express his anger. Constructive anger in this case: the petition he launched, which called for nothing more and nothing less than for senior citizens to no longer hold a driving licence for life, was signed by over 150,000 people. At that time, I was on the sidelines of this movement. I needed to get my head together; to clearly appreciate the extent to which a 90 year old person driving without any safeguards is truly mind-boggling. We are in a country, France, where there is no age limit to stop driving. Most of our neighbouring countries have a strict framework: it is distinctly considered that from a certain age onwards, it is no longer reasonable to use a car.
P. I. — Did you anticipate that your commitment would have such an impact?
P. D. — The circumstances of the accident did a lot for the media frenzy that followed. It was not only the profile of the person who caused the accident that generated comments. We were also in the middle of Paris: it could have happened to anyone. Finally, there were several victims. I am on the front line now telling you about that day, but let’s not forget the other young woman, who was able to recover her leg but who is still in pain when she moves around. And what about the young father whose neurological abilities have been irreparably damaged and who has been unable to resume normal professional activities. We are linked for life by this tragedy and I think of them every day.
P. I. — You have also encountered the reactions of the political world.
P. D. — One reaction in particular seriously offended me. When Christophe Castaner, then Minister of the Interior, explained that such an accident was first and foremost the responsibility of the individual or of the family. In other words, it is up to the person to decide whether he or she can drive or, if the person is not in a position to decide, it is up to those around him or her to decide. This amounts to almost justifying a total lack of supervision. I had the opportunity to explain this to Christophe Castaner one day when we met in the corridors of a radio station. He apologised for his words and we had a meeting afterwards.
P. I. — This means that those responsible are aware of the need to improve things.
P. D. — It’s almost a case of double standards. When you ask elected officials in private, they are well aware of the dangers of lifetime driving licences. They are also receptive to the idea of finding alternatives, such as a system of shuttles to transport the elderly. But they are far more reticent when speaking in public. Why this reluctance, this lack of political courage? In France, the car is sacred: don’t touch it! Freedom of movement is only part of the explanation. What prevails is to catch votes. No one has forgotten when former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe wanted to lower the speed limit on the secondary road network to 80 km per hour: he was quickly forced to backtrack.
P. I. — Nevertheless, despite the reluctance of the public authorities, you are in dialogue with them. You have made a video with the Road Safety Directorate at the Ministry of Transport; you are preparing two others. In short, you are almost part of the system that aims to make roads safer.
P. D. — I am not part of the system. I am not affiliated with any organisation. I am a free spirit in my struggle for better road safety. This can be seen as an opportunity: it makes me freer to push doors open without too much ceremony; on the other hand, I don’t master the codes to make things happen; that is to say, the legal knowledge, the political networks, the media contacts. Of course, I have some anchor points but I don’t claim to be the figurehead of a movement that wants to make the roads safer. By the way, the prize money in wheelchair tennis is not enough to support me, far from it. For almost four years, I have been able to rely on a small network of partners to give me independence. Their support is invaluable and I’m grateful for it. They are an additional encouragement to make my new life fruitful. This is to say again that I can’t take on responsibilities that are not mine. Don’t expect me to comment on the safety of the infrastructure, the type of vehicles or the way insurance works. I have been careful not to go into insurance as a profession as it is not in insurers’ interests to limit the use of the driving licence. A serious accident certainly obliges a company to pay out large sums of money, but this is of little consequence compared to the loss of a licence for a certain category of ‘unfit’ people.
P. I. — Have the politicians at the forefront of reforms in society duly taken on their responsibilities?
P. D. — Let’s face it, progress has been timid. But small steps have been made, such as the recent decree that people with a significant degree of Alzheimer’s disease can no longer drive; on medical advice, of course. It is worth remembering that after my accident I had to take my driving test again. Believe me, it takes courage to face an examiner after what happened to me. Although I fully understand that my new status as a disabled person was not a driving hazard. But what could be wrong with a person of a certain age or degree of unfitness undergoing an assessment of their ability to drive? With a category of offences in cases where individuals do not comply with this measure. For other conditions that impair the ability to drive, such as alcohol or drugs, a scale of penalties has already been established.
P. I. — At the end of last year, the person responsible for your accident died. Had you met him?
P. D. — I made a point of meeting this man during the legal proceedings (Editor’s note: proceedings were interrupted when he died, meaning that there was no trial to acknowledge criminal liability). We are talking primarily about the victims, and rightly so, but we also have to talk about those who are responsible for an accident and who are also seriously affected. In this case, this gentleman was perfectly aware that he was at fault, despite all the precautions he was already taking: short journeys, no night driving and so on. He had even been thinking for some time of giving up driving. Since we are talking about legal proceedings, when can we expect a quicker outcome? Thousands of cases are dragging on, to the great dismay of the victims. Not only are they directly affected, but they see months and years go by without the facts being judged: this is double punishment. And when they are judged, the penalties are ridiculous and sometimes their driving licence is not even suspended; in French law, the car is not considered a weapon and for the victims, this is an additional injustice.
P. I. — Now, when you take the car, are you even more careful than in the past?
P. D. — I got my licence when I was 25, only two years before my accident. So my memory of the Highway Code was very fresh when I was hit. They are still fresh, but for reasons I could have done without. I take care when driving, but also when others drive, because an error of judgement by others can quickly have consequences. Unfortunately, how many motorists run the red lights, text on their smartphones or don’t use their blinkers? Too many. Far too many. I try not to be too vindictive and to lecture them when I roll down my window, but it’s hard when you see so much rudeness and incompetent and dangerous people on the road.
P. I. — Having started this interview with wheelchair tennis and the new season ahead, let’s finish by asking you if the sport is getting the support it deserves?
P. D. — Things are moving, little by little. The French Tennis Federation (FFT) is aware of the pool of good male and female players. But just a few steps away from Paris 2024, potential counts! Players hoping for medals should be encouraged, against the backdrop of an entire sport that needs to count on increased support.