Three people died in a car accident in Seine-et-Marne; the driver was found with "a bottle of nitrous oxide between his feet".

"Excessive speed and nitrous oxide consumption" may be the causes of the accident that occurred in Sainte-Aulde, Seine-et-Marne, on Sunday, March 8, around 4 a.m., reported the public prosecutor of Meaux. Three young men were killed in an accident on Sunday, March 8, around 4 a.m. in Seine-et-Marne, when the 19-year-old driver lost control of their vehicle, which struck a tree on a departmental road in Sainte-Aulde. Nitrous oxide use may be one of the causes of this accident. "Excessive speed and nitrous oxide use appear to be the causes of the accident" that occurred on Sunday, stated the public prosecutor of Meaux, Jean-Baptiste Bladier. The young driver, born in 2007, "had a balloon in his mouth and a nitrous oxide canister between his feet," noted the head of the prosecutor's office. He had only held his driver's license for a month and a half. The accident occurred on a straight stretch of road in conditions of "very poor visibility due to fog," the prosecutor stated. A heavy toll: When the gendarmerie patrol arrived a few minutes later, only one vehicle had crashed into the plane tree, with four occupants, three of whom were already deceased. A fourth passenger, a young man born in 2000, was seriously injured and evacuated "in critical condition" to a hospital, the gendarmerie indicated. Known as "laughing gas," nitrous oxide is inhaled for its euphoric effects via balloons and has been implicated in the rise in road fatalities last year.