Outrageous details emerge from the dossier of a horrific accident 8 months ago in which a Spanish family died on a road in Sibiu County. The driver responsible for the tragedy was tired, he exceeded the limit, but before that he also had an accident, writes Turnul Sfatului. In order to stay awake while driving, the man hit his head on the headrest, turned up the music to the maximum and shouted alone in the car, according to the data in the file. Although he asked to change his qualification to manslaughter, the court decided that the man should be tried for murder. The next trial date will be September 7, 2023.
The accident occurred on 4 December 2022 on DN1, in a wooded area on Hula Bradului, between Sibiu and Avrig. The culprit of the tragedy, a 63-year-old man from Gorj, was returning from Germany and driving without stopping, the quoted source writes, at least a day and a half before the fatal blow. He was driving at 128 km/h in a 50 speed zone.
“If I fell asleep, I would hit the headrest or open the window”
Another car was driving from the opposite direction, driven by a 21-year-old girl from Spain who came to Romania on an Erasmus scholarship. Her parents were in the rented car, as well as her younger sister, 15 years old, who was vacationing in our country.
A 63-year-old man drove into the oncoming lane, in an area marked with a solid double line. The girl, who was traveling at a speed of 40 km / h, could not avoid a frontal impact and flew off into a concrete wall on the side of the road. The girl’s parents died on the spot, and two girls later in the hospital.
“If I fell asleep, I felt and controlled myself. I banged my head against the headrest, opened the window, or turned up the music and hummed. I also had a mantra that I chanted that seemed to help me, protect me. , and delivered me to a safe place to my destination,” the defendant’s statement dated December 7, 2022.
According to the indictment of the prosecutor’s office, on December 2, 2022, at about 14:00, the defendant got behind the wheel of a car in Birkenau, where he worked as a nurse for the elderly, and drove about 200 kilometers to Fürth. away, where he spent the night at a friend’s house. The next day, December 3, at about 10 am, he set off for Romania, driving approximately 1,300 kilometers. After 7 hours of driving, he wanted to stay at a hotel in front of Budapest, but, according to the man, he could not find a place to sleep. Because of the cold, he managed to sleep in the car for only an hour, and at 03 at night he set off again. Due to ignorance of the route, he got lost in Hungary, but eventually, with the help of other drivers, he went to the city of Szeged, journalists write Turnul Sfatului.
“I fell asleep many times, and every time God held me in his arms”
“After he was able to understand the route he was going to take, he set off again, but, being a “bad dream”, as he mentioned, he began to make various gestures to help him not fall asleep, namely, shouting, turning on the radio, open a window or massage your leg due to numbness. Although he was in a severe state of fatigue and was involved in various traffic accidents, aspects that arise both from the discussions he had through the WhatsApp application, and as follows from the testimony of the suspect, he continued driving along the highway, where, due to fatigue, he dozed off at the wheel and crashed into a parapet, after which he stopped to check the car and the damage caused, ”the prosecutor’s office said. write in file.
The indictment also includes transcripts of several audio recordings exchanged via WhatsApp between the driver and his girlfriend in the country:
“Wow, how scared I was just now, how scared I was … I turned on the autopilot and was on the first lane, because none of them were driving at a speed of 130 (…) In the last one, for example, in the one that was in front me, I missed because the street next to me narrowed (…) Now I stop to see what damage I did to the car, because, as I said, fatigue speaks for itself many times fell asleep and God held me in his arms every time, but in the end I still hit the railing, and I want to see what I did with the car
“I got off really cheap, my love! Just two little scratches, like, two little scratches. My God! My God! (…) I got off easy, that’s all! I’ll yell in the car from now on roll down the window I hope, I hope that I will make it in time. Yes, the fatigue is very, very great! “- says the transcripts of the audio messages that appear in the file.
He asked to be tried for manslaughter, not capital murder.
The indictment, the cited source writes, cites several testimonies from witnesses who crossed the road in a car driven by the guilty driver. People tell how they were overtaken by a man at speed, in many cases at the limit, only for him to enter the lane again and brake hard.
The guilty driver, who is under investigation in the murder case, asked the court to change the legal qualification to manslaughter. However, at the meeting of July 26, 2023, the court rejected his application.
“The defendant admitted that he was in a “very, very tired” state, did not know the route, was not used to driving for several hours, fell asleep at the wheel several times, that there were other incidents with him. on the way and even resigned himself to the accident, showing an indifferent attitude towards him, hoping that no more traffic accidents would occur. qualification of the murder provided for in Article 189 paragraph 1 letter f of the Criminal Code, and not manslaughter, since he acted with guilt in the form of indirect intent, in the sense that he foresaw the possibility of a traffic accident, as a result of his actions and, even if he did not achieve, he agreed to the production of this result, ”says the court decision, which is quoted by the journalists of the Tower of the Council.
The next date for the trial was set for September 7, 2023.
Editor: Isabela Zachariah
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