- On Wednesday police arrested the spectator who caused a huge crash at the
Tour de France , RTL reported. - The woman caused the pileup on Saturday when she held a sign into the road on the race's opening stage.
- She could face a fine and jail time.
French police have arrested the spectator who caused a massive crash at the Tour de France on Saturday, European media outlets reported on Wednesday.
Luxembourg outlet RTL said a woman had been arrested and was in custody in Landerneau, the town where Saturday's stage finished, 15 miles from Brest, where the Tour began.
The woman was holding a cardboard sign wishing her grandparents good luck into the path of German pro cyclist Tony Martin of the Jumbo-Visma team.
Martin could not avoid hitting the sign and crashed, triggering a mass pileup with dozens of riders tumbling over and around him.
Jasha Sütterlin of Team DSM was forced to abandon the race as a result of a severe contusion caused by the crash. Several others were also injured.
-NBCSports (@NBCSports) June 26, 2021
-daniel mcmahon (@cyclingreporter) June 26, 2021
The French sports daily L'Equipe reported that the spectator could face a fine of 1,500 euros, or $1,790.
If Sütterlin, the main victim of the crash, decides to file a complaint and escalate the case to a criminal claim, then the fine could increase to $17,900 (€15,000) - and the woman could face a year in prison.
It was not immediately clear if the woman had been charged.
The woman's arrest seemingly puts an end to rumors that she had fled France after the incident.
On Tuesday, English-language outlets including MailOnline and CBS Sports reported that the woman had escaped on a flight out of France. Those reports appear to have relied on a mistranslation.
Most outlets sharing the new of the woman's apparent departure on a plane cited a Saturday article from French outlet Ouest-France, focusing on the sentence below:
"Mais juste après l'incident, cette dernière, de nationalité étrangère, probablement allemande, a pris la poudre d'escampette."
When entered into online translation services like Google Translate, the sentence in English reads: "But just after the incident, the latter [the spectator], of foreign nationality, probably German, took to the skies."
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But the phrase "a pris la poudre d'escampette," taken by some outlets to mean the woman had flown out of France, more literally means "taken the escampette powder," a French colloquialism for "take flight" or "leave without warning."
Beyond that one line in Ouest France's story, there was no concrete evidence that the woman got on a plane to escape France.
News of the woman's arrest comes less than 24 hours after a local prosecutor described the investigation into her whereabouts as "progressing well."
According to Ouest France, Camille Miansoni, a prosecutor of the Republic of Brest, said at a press conference, "We hope to be able to explain this event within a reasonable time."
"After the call for witnesses, which was launched in the evening, several testimonies were taken. Obviously, you have to cross-check them, you have to check them, it takes a little time."
"I cannot give more elements," Miansoni added, before telling reporters: "We are confident."