There's the theory (you googling the French penal code and its scary max sentences) and practice (me a French guy with 37 years of seeing (as an outsider) what really happens in French courts). In France you don't go in prison, or not that long, when you were faced with an impossible choice.

If the trolley problem happened for real here, whatever your choice, I'm willing to bet you wouldn't go in prison. It's not a 100% bet (I estimate it at 80%), of course I could loose but you wouldn't do more than 5 years. I can't find anything about it in English but if you're willing to Google translate it, look for "Vincent Humbert" for a perfect example of what I'm talking about.

There's a real cultural difference between how the French and the Americans think about the law.

I'd wager that more than 95% of the French population will never see a lawyer through their life.