After a car accident with four dead and five injured in Berlin-Mitte, the police continue to investigate on suspicion of negligent homicide. Now, the evidence of a health problem of the driver condense as an accident cause. This reports, inter alia, the news agency dpa citing investigators.
According to this, the medical record of the Porsche driver should be used to determine whether he may have collapsed behind the wheel or have suffered an epileptic seizure.
To do this, the prosecutor must initiate the seizure of the file. Whether this has already happened is still unclear. The results of the examination of a blood sample are still pending. The 42-year-old is seriously injured in the hospital.
Police chief Barbara Slowik said at the edge of the Interior Committee, "We still definitely do not exclude medical reasons." The Berlin police did not want to comment on the state of the investigation on request.
An SUV had strayed off the road on Friday night and had fatally injured four pedestrians at a traffic light, including a three-year-old boy. Residents reported that the SUV had overtaken the traffic at the traffic lights very fast on the opposite lane and had fallen onto the sidewalk. The car knocked over a traffic light mast and several bollards, broke through a construction fence and only came to a halt on a building plot.
As the "Berliner Morgenpost" reports, the hallmark of the Porsches so far has not appeared in any Raser or similar criminal proceedings. The police had previously excluded intent in the accident.
The incident triggered a discussion about SUVs in inner cities. The Greens in Berlin demand after the accident, a nationwide legislation that wants to banish large off-road vehicles from inner cities. "We need an upper limit for large SUVs in inner cities," said the deputy chairman of the Greens parliamentary group, Oliver Krischer, the Tagesspiegel. "The best would be a federal regulation that allows municipalities to enact certain size limits."
The automobile club ADAC considers a ban on SUV neither feasible nor useful. "Decisive for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists is rather the responsible driving of motor vehicles," said an ADAC spokesman. This applies especially for the factors adapted speed, alcohol and distraction. Accident prevention could not be solved by banning a vehicle class, "but by more consideration".
On Saturday evening, hundreds of people came to a vigil at the intersection Invalidenstraße / Ackerstraße. Also on Sunday, passersby put candles, flowers and pictures at the scene of the accident.
DPA
Vigil at the accident site in Berlin