In October 2019, a young driver died after being hit by a car traveling more than 200 kilometers per hour on the A9. The perpetrator was convicted. But now the case has to be re-evaluated.
A fatal speeding accident at more than 200 kilometers per hour on a freeway has to be legally re-evaluated by the Ingolstadt district court in the coming weeks. The 26-year-old racer had already been sentenced to three and a half years in prison in Ingolstadt for a prohibited motor vehicle race resulting in death, but the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) overturned the verdict and referred it back to Ingolstadt for a new trial.
The process began on Tuesday with the extensive reading of the previous files. The only issue now in the proceedings is whether and how the accused man should be punished. “The objective facts are binding,” emphasized the presiding judge.
Accordingly, the defendant had tuned his sports car to 575 hp. On the day of the accident in October 2019, the man was driving on the A9 near Ingolstadt at at least 233 kilometers per hour in an area where a maximum of 100 km/h was allowed at the time. When a car in front of him changed lanes, the accused crashed into the rear of the other car at 207 kilometers per hour despite emergency braking. The 22-year-old in the car ahead had no chance of survival.
The BGH granted the appeals of both the defense counsel and the co-plaintiff’s attorney. The defenders had demanded an acquittal because they blamed the accident on the victim because of his lane change. The lawyer for the driver’s father, on the other hand, is asking for a manslaughter conviction.
The judges in Karlsruhe complained that the Ingolstadt criminal court, which was initially responsible, had on the one hand affirmed an intention to endanger the accused within the meaning of the paragraph against illegal car racing, but on the other hand had denied an intention to kill.