As of: February 20, 2024, 7:30 p.m
Comments
Press
Split
Microphones and headphones on a table in a courtroom.
© Jonas Walzberg/dpa/Symbolbild
A first responder dies in a subsequent accident on the highway.
The Frankfurt district court imposes a prison sentence on a driver.
The Darmstadt regional court converts this.
Darmstadt - After the death of a first responder on Autobahn 3, a 41-year-old driver was sentenced to two years in prison on probation.
The Darmstadt regional court found him guilty on Tuesday of negligent homicide and multiple bodily harm.
It negotiated in the second instance.
About a year ago, the Groß-Gerau district court sentenced the man to three years in prison.
The defendant and the public prosecutor filed an appeal.
Judge Carsten Markert spoke on Tuesday of a “highly tragic accident”.
The convicted Romanian's driver's license remains confiscated and he has to pay a total of 5,000 euros in fines.
According to the court, the man was drunk with a blood alcohol level of 1.26 per mille on the morning of May 8, 2022.
On Autobahn 3 near Frankfurt Airport, he drove his van into an unsecured accident scene despite braking hard.
A first responder who helped with the minor collision was fatally injured.
A year in a vegetative state
A second first responder was thrown in front of another small car that was passing the scene of the accident.
The small car driver ran over the man and committed a hit-and-run.
The victim died in the summer of 2023 without waking from the vegetative state.
A third first aider and two of the defendant's passengers were slightly injured.
With the verdict, the regional court followed the requests of the public prosecutor and defense.
They had judged in favor of the defendant that he had no previous convictions, had a job, had submitted to the proceedings and that the crime had occurred almost two years ago.
Alcohol not a clear cause
For the public prosecutor and the court, alcoholization was not a clear cause of the accident.
According to the accident expert, the driver would only have been allowed to drive at a speed of 85 instead of 120 kilometers per hour due to the poor visibility due to the low beam.
However, he reacted quickly enough when he recognized the scene of the accident.
From the perspective of the forensic medical expert, the fatal injuries of the second first aider could not be clearly attributed to the defendant.
The court also followed this, so that the case remained one case of negligent homicide.
The judgment is legally binding and overturns the first instance judgment of the Groß-Gerau district court.
dpa