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Destroyed BMW X6 in Frankfurt Ostend: 625 hp
Photo: Silas Stein / dpa
After a deadly frenzy, the Frankfurt public prosecutor accused a 39-year-old of double murder, dangerous bodily harm and illegal car racing.
The city's district court has now approved the charges against the SUV driver after the incident at the end of 2020.
According to a statement from the court, the driver will have to answer for himself in a criminal case before the 21st Circuit Chamber.
According to the indictment, the man was driving a 625-hp BMW X6 in Frankfurt's Ostend and had accelerated sharply at several traffic lights on Sonnemannstrasse, which was very busy at the time.
In the bend towards Oskar-von-Miller-Straße he is said to have pressed the gas pedal almost completely and initiated a "drift" in order to achieve the highest possible speed and to impress other road users with his particularly risky driving style.
Before that, according to the prosecutor, he is said to have switched off an on-board safety mechanism (dynamic stability control) that would have prevented the vehicle from swerving.
31-year-old seriously injured
This could support the charge of the public prosecutor's office if the accused should have at least accepted such serious consequences of his actions - i.e. acted intentionally.
The public prosecutor's office had originally only investigated on suspicion of negligent homicide.
Due to his frenzy, the man is said to have finally lost control of the BMW, which spun across the road at more than 80 km/h, first hitting a 27-year-old bicycle courier and then a 31-year-old, severely visually impaired woman and her 61-year-old father captured.
The cyclist and the elderly man died.
The woman suffered serious injuries, some of them life-threatening.
She had to be treated in intensive care.
Even the frenzy of the man, who has been in custody since the beginning of March 2021, is potentially punishable.
The Federal Constitutional Court recently decided that speeders can also be prosecuted for so-called solo races without an opponent (file number 2 BvL 1/20).
The standard issued in 2017 is sufficiently specific and compatible with the Basic Law, and community protection takes precedence over freedom of action.
For the main hearing in the Frankfurt case, ten days of hearing were scheduled from April.
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