Car hijacker brought before Zurich High Court after fatal drive
Published: Friday, Mar 22nd 2024, 05:40
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A 26-year-old man has to answer to the High Court of the Canton of Zurich today, Friday. In November 2017, he caused a serious traffic accident in which one person was killed and several injured.
In July 2021, the District Court of Andelfingen ZH found the Swiss national guilty of multiple counts of wilful endangerment of life, involuntary manslaughter and negligent grievous bodily harm as well as several traffic offenses. The court sentenced him to five years and two months' imprisonment.
Among other things, the High Court will have to clarify whether it was actually a case of involuntary manslaughter and not contingent intent, as the prosecution claimed. The public prosecutor had demanded a prison sentence of six years and two months. The defense lawyer pleaded negligence and a waiver of punishment.
The district court had doubted that the young man had actually "accepted" the serious consequences of the accident, as is a prerequisite for contingent intent. It assumed in favor of the accused that he had trusted that the danger to his life would not occur.
Tired and drunk at the wheel
At around 5 a.m. on November 4, 2017, the then 19-year-old was driving his car back to Schaffhausen from a night out in Zurich, overtired and drunk. In the car with him were a friend and two young women.
On the A4, the car came up behind a semitrailer truck that was traveling at 80 km/h. The 19-year-old truck driver was too slow. This was too slow for the 19-year-old trained truck driver. However, as the vehicles were on a single-lane section, overtaking was not possible.
With a breakneck maneuver across a rest area, the accused nevertheless tried to get in front of the semitrailer truck. When turning back onto the A4, however, he hit the rear of the truck, which had just passed in front of him. The car swerved into the oncoming lane and collided with a car coming the other way.
The driver, the defendant himself and a female passenger sustained moderate injuries. The second passenger suffered serious injuries with permanent consequences. The driver's colleague was so seriously injured that he died a few days later.
©Keystone/SDA
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