In 2019, a 22-year-old raced through a residential area at 160 km/h. He is unable to prevent the collision with a small car, and the driver dies in the hospital a short time later. It is still unclear whether the man was guilty of murder. In the third round, the case is now back in the district court.
Was the deadly end of an illegal car race in Moers, west of Duisburg, murder or a less serious act? For the third time, a regional court has to rule on the responsibility of the driver who is primarily responsible. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe also partially overturned the second judgment against the man due to contradictions in the reasoning and referred the matter to a new hearing in Duisburg. The main thing is how the driver assessed the danger.
On Easter Monday 2019, around 10 p.m., two men had an illegal race with powerful cars in a residential area. The accused accelerated within seconds to more than 160 kilometers per hour – on the oncoming lane. When a 43-year-old woman turned into the street about 100 meters ahead in her small car, he could no longer stop or swerve. The woman sustained serious injuries on impact and died in hospital. The polluter, who had never made it through the theoretical driving test, fled the scene of the accident and went into hiding as good as unharmed. It was only a week later that he turned himself in to the police, when a public manhunt was already underway.
The district court of Kleve sentenced the then 22-year-old to life imprisonment in 2020 for murder. The BGH overturned this judgment because the intention to kill was not well enough justified. Because the speeders had been on a priority road. It could therefore not be completely ruled out that the defendant trusted that crossing cars would stop.
At the second attempt, the regional court imposed four years in prison for a prohibited motor vehicle race resulting in death. On the other hand, the public prosecutor and the family of the victim went before the BGH. They want to get the man convicted of murder. The fourth criminal division at the Federal Court of Justice has now overturned parts of the judgment due to contradictory statements in the reasoning. It is about the extent to which the driver expected potentially fatal accidents at the time. The regional court sentenced the second speeder, who was not directly involved in the accident, to three years and nine months in prison. This decision is final.
