The new year is off to a gloomy start for Angélique (28), and Jean-Sébastien Fraisse (30), a poor couple in north-eastern France.
In a landmark decision that could transform French jurisprudence on drink-driving, the Nancy appeals court late last year lodged criminal charges against Mr and Mrs Fraisse for allowing his cousin, Frédéric Colin, to leave their home in a drunken state at 4 a.m. Five people died as a result, including Mr Colin.
In weeks to come, the Fraisses will receive a court summons to stand trial for "non-prevention of a crime or misdemeanour that causes bodily harm".
If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined up to €75,000.
The only vaguely similar precedent in France was the case of Marc Bauduin, a café owner near Dijon who received a two-month suspended sentence last April for selling drink to an inebriated client who then killed three young people in a car crash.
Mr Colin was a 29-year-old factory worker when the fatal accident occurred nearly two years ago.
He drove the wrong way down the A31 motorway between Metz and Nancy, colliding head-on with the car of a young family who were trying to beat the traffic by leaving early for their winter skiing holiday in the French Alps.
Didier Bonlarron (32), a company director, his wife Mathilde, née Échalier (31) and two of their three little boys, Louis and Matthieu, were all killed in the crash.
Only the eldest child, Gaultier, then aged five, survived.
Mr Colin burned to death when his car caught fire. Eight hours after the accident, his blood still contained 2.4 grams of alcohol per litre - more than four times the legal limit.
Drink driving accounts for about half of France's 7,000 annual road fatalities.
It is not uncommon for early-risers, particularly cyclists, to be mowed down by drunks on their way home from a night's drinking.
Mathilde Échalier's parents, brothers and sisters are raising the orphaned Gaultier. It was they who filed the civil lawsuit which ultimately led to the Fraisses being charged.
"They did it out of a sense of duty towards their dead daughter," the family's lawyer, Henri Fabre-Luce, said in an interview.
"They're not interested in financial damages." Nor would the Fraisses be able to pay substantial damages. He is a metal industry worker and she is disabled.
It is one of the terrible ironies of the case that Angélique Fraisse has been a paraplegic since she was knocked down by a drunk driver outside a nightclub at the age of 16. Jean-Sébastien was also the victim of a car accident and long suffered from a paralysed leg.
The couple met in a physical therapy centre and had been married for one year when the evening of drinking wrecked their lives.
"They're from a disadvantaged background," Mr Fabre-Luce explained.
"These people lead a dull, sad life in a dreary region. When they get together, it's to drink." On the night of February 23rd-24th, 2000, the Fraisses invited another couple, the Desavelles, and Mr Colin to their home. There were drinks before dinner, then wine with the meal. Afterwards, Mrs Desavelle, who was sober, drove all five to a bar where the men continued drinking. They returned to the Fraisses for a night-cap. Mr Fraisse passed out. Mrs Desavelle tried to persuade Mr Colin to let her drive him home.
He refused, saying he would sleep at his cousin's.
But an hour later, Mr Colin insisted he wanted to go home. "I locked both doors and hid the keys," Mrs Fraisse told France Soir newspaper. "Frédéric was going crazy; he was shaking the doors and gave me a foul look when I tried to take his car keys. So I let him go. What else could I do, from a wheelchair? He promised to call me when he got home" When he filed the lawsuit, Mr Fabre-Luce asked that both couples be held criminally liable, for having behaved irresponsibly. The court exonerated the Desavelles and said the Fraisses were at fault for failing to call the paramilitary gendarmes.
The case has provoked widespread debate about the propriety of calling the police on a friend.
"In English-speaking countries it would be considered natural," says Mr Fabre-Luce.
"But in France, there's shame attached to calling the cops. It has something to do with our individualism and our lack of a civic sense."
The Fraisses say they are sorry about what happened, but do not feel guilty. The couple have moved houses to escape media attention, and Mrs Fraisse complains of insomnia and infertility. She believes the victims' family have turned on her and her husband out of the need to find a guilty party. "I felt the same way when I was run over," she said. "It's just that we weren't at the wheel of the car that night."