16, Deliveroo, Lille, January 2022
In the cold of January 2022, the streets of Lille are already lit up as night falls. Among the figures hurrying by is Faël Talbi, 16, on his bike. The Deliveroo bag on his back is not his: it belongs to a friend, and he has just picked it up. A simple favour, like the many he often does.
In the Résidence and Hôtel de Ville neighbourhoods of Villeneuve-d’Ascq, on the outskirts of Lille, Faël was a familiar figure. The teenager with the infectious smile was about to turn 17. A business studies pupil at the Lycée Dynah-Derycke, he stood out for his generosity. “Someone helpful, always there for everyone, very sociable, who loved people,” says a friend who knew him well. The same words come back again and again.
His father, Benyounes Talbi, speaks with restraint about the son who lived with his parents and his 18-year-old older brother. A woman in the neighbourhood “considered him her son”, a moving testimony to the bonds he had built around him. A boy who never caused any trouble, he was one of those who leave a discreet but deep mark on people’s hearts.
His friends describe a boy who was “smiling, cheerful, always up for it”, a teenager full of life who, in their words, “didn’t deserve what happened to him”. Simple words that express their incomprehension at the brutality of fate.
On the evening of 11 January 2022, shortly before 7pm, Faël is cycling along rue Saint-Armand in the Fives district of Lille. The cold bites, and the traffic is heavy on this road linking Villeneuve d’Ascq to Lille. The young man does not work for Deliveroo - he is too young for that. He is doing a favour for a friend, a courier whose bag has been stolen. He is simply bringing him a replacement bag.
This stretch, near the pont de Tournai bridge, is known to local cyclists for being dangerous. François Loiseau, of the cycling association Droit au Vélo [Right to Cycle], would later call it a “black spot” for cyclists. Yet every morning, 400 cyclists venture through it between 8am and 9am. At this hour, early in the evening, the traffic is still heavy.
That is where everything changes. An articulated lorry, stopped at a red light in a line of cars, pulls away when the light turns green. The driver, moving slowly, does not see Faël, who is on the right-hand side of the cab. The collision is unavoidable.
Local residents, alerted by the noise, rush out. They find the young man on the ground, already badly injured. They stay by his side, helpless witnesses to those crucial minutes. Firefighters from the Lille-Bouvines station arrive quickly, followed by a team from the SAMU, the emergency medical service. Despite their efforts to revive him, Faël dies of his injuries.
The scene is one of silent violence: the teenager’s bike is wedged between the bumper and the ground, at the front of the lorry. A metre behind the trailer, the body is covered with a white sheet. Faël’s life ended there, on the corner of an ordinary street, on an ordinary January evening.
News of Faël’s death spreads quickly through Villeneuve-d’Ascq. In the neighbourhoods he walked every day, disbelief gives way to grief. His mother, “very affected” in his father’s understated words, struggles to accept this brutal reality.
At his school, his classmates are in shock. “It was a friend who called me on the phone, it’s devastating,” says one of them. No one understands how a boy so young, with so much ahead of him, could disappear so suddenly.
The Deliveroo bag on his back puzzles investigators. The platform quickly makes clear that he was not one of its official couriers, and that it works only with adults. “As soon as we heard the news, we got in touch with the investigators to put ourselves at their disposal and offer our help,” says Damien Stéffan, the company’s spokesperson.
The lorry driver, taken into police custody as part of proceedings for involuntary manslaughter, is released the following day. He tells investigators that he was stopped at the red light in a line of cars when he pulled away slowly, without seeing the cyclist on the right-hand side of his cab. The investigation was to continue in order to “establish the precise circumstances” of the accident, but the prosecutor’s office has been unable to say what came of it.
Two days after the accident, on Thursday 13 January, a gathering is held on rue Jean-Baptiste-Lully in Villeneuve-d’Ascq. Faël’s family, relatives and friends meet there for a moment of reflection. A vigil at the home of the woman who “considered him her son”, before the official farewell.
The next day, at midday, prayers are held at the mosque in Villeneuve-d’Ascq. Faël is then buried in the Muslim section of the Lille-Sud cemetery. On his grave, flowers and messages bear witness to the affection people had for him.
The same day, at dusk, the association Droit au Vélo holds a silent tribute at the scene of the accident. At the end of the pont de Tournai, on the Hellemmes side, many people gather. No banners, no slogans, just high-visibility vests and armbands so they can be seen. A moment of dignity and silence for a boy who will never turn 17.
At the scene of the accident, bouquets of flowers pile up. Among them, a message signed Amin, with hearts: “May Allah grant you paradise”.