crime
Driver in custody after fatal smuggling accident on A94
Seven people died and several were seriously injured in an accident involving a suspected smuggling vehicle on Autobahn 94. photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
Seven migrants die in a serious traffic accident on the A94. Now an investigating judge has decided what happens next for the driver and suspected smuggler.
There is a strong suspicion that the murder feature of the intention to cover up has been realized. Ultimately, when the man fled from the police, it was important to cover up his own involvement in the smuggling.
It happened on Friday morning
According to the investigation, the stateless man living in Austria was driving a van registered for nine people on Friday morning, in which 22 people from Syria and Turkey were crammed together. He fled from an attempted federal police stop at 180 kilometers per hour and performed highly risky driving maneuvers until he lost control at the Ampfing/Waldkraiburg motorway exit in the Mühldorf am Inn district and the car overturned.
All occupants were seriously injured. Seven of them died, including a six-year-old child. The 24-year-old was also initially taken to a hospital.
At the request of the Traunstein public prosecutor’s office, the suspected smuggler was brought before an investigating judge on Saturday. According to the information, he issued an arrest warrant. “We continue to take very tough action against the smugglers and their backers. We want to protect human lives and stop criminals,” emphasized the head of the public prosecutor’s office, Wolfgang Beckstein. The investigation is also about clarifying the background and identifying and arresting those behind it.
“Unfortunately, we now have cases almost every day in which 15 to 20 people are smuggled in unsecured in small vans,” said Beckstein. There was also an increasing number of cases in which drivers drove away from the police with extremely dangerous driving habits, rammed police cars or drove towards officers. “The perpetrators are becoming more and more inhumane and ruthless.”