An accident in heavy rain on the Autobahn three and a half years ago cost the lives of four motorcyclists. The person who caused the accident will now go unpunished.
Rudolstadt (dpa / lsw) – acquittal after the death of four motorcyclists on the motorway: The district court of Rudolstadt in Thuringia has acquitted the person responsible for the accident from the charge of four times negligent homicide. The 42-year-old from Brandenburg cannot be held criminally responsible, the judges justified their decision on Tuesday. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
In August 2019, the defendant left the road on the A9 near Bad Lobenstein with his van and fell into a group of motorcyclists. This had stopped under a highway bridge to seek shelter from heavy rain. The motorcyclists who were killed, aged 43, 57, 60 and 75, came from the Burgenland district (Saxony-Anhalt) and from Pforzheim. The cause of the accident was aquaplaning.
It could not be determined in court whether the 42-year-old could have foreseen and prevented the accident. For example, it was not possible to clarify how long before the accident the heavy rain started and at what speed the accident could have been avoided. According to the expert, the van was driving at around 90 kilometers per hour at the time of the accident. The speed limit there was 100 kilometers per hour.
At the start of the trial in early February, the accused was still shaken by the accident. He was unable to process what happened three and a half years ago and was receiving psychological treatment, he said. The accused and several witnesses testified that the heavy rain started suddenly and the windshield wipers barely made it. Visibility was only a few meters. According to the defendant, he had braked, but this had no effect given the weather. Only then did he realize what had happened.
The judges followed the defense’s request with their verdict. The public prosecutor’s office and the co-plaintiffs had demanded a sentence of seven months – suspended for two years on probation.
