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Defendant in Munich district court: "I'm very sorry for everything that happened"
Photo: Matthias Balk / dpa
In the trial for a fatal speeding accident on a motorway near Munich, the accused apologized to the family of his dead passenger.
"At no time did we expect that anything could happen," said the 26-year-old student on Wednesday before the Munich District Court.
He then burst into tears and asked his lawyer to continue reading his statement.
"I'm very sorry for everything that happened," the statement said.
"I would like to take this opportunity today to offer my sincere apologies." He "would do anything to undo it."
The public prosecutor accuses the accused of illegal motor vehicle racing in combination with negligent homicide.
In 2019, he is said to have caused an accident on Autobahn 95 in a rented sports car at at least 305 kilometers per hour, in which his passenger died.
Months of investigation
It took nine months for investigations to show that the accused had been driving the car and not the dead man, whose seat had been thrown out of the completely destroyed car.
The defendant stated that he could not remember the accident or who was driving.
The two friends would have alternated again and again and he did not want to accuse him wrongly.
He simply didn't know that he was driving and not his friend.
The brother of the dead man called the accused's behavior after the crime "cowardly and disgusting".
The fact that his little brother was long considered the “death driver from Gauting” put an additional heavy burden on his family.
The crime is primarily being tried at the district court and not at the regional court, because no uninvolved third party died in the frenzy, but a passenger who was taking part in the race.
This means that the penalty for such a race is not ten years.
The maximum sentence that a district court can impose is four years.
wit/dpa
