Trial in Feldkirch – prison sentence after fatal traffic accident

The suspect was sentenced on Thursday to a partial prison term of fifteen months for murder by gross negligence. The previously innocent man got behind the wheel of his powerful sports car drunk on the evening of October 20 and hit the pipe – despite poor visibility and weather conditions. Near Haselstauden primary school, he eventually hit a 76-year-old pedestrian on the security path at far too high speed. The impact threw the woman against the windshield and then catapulted ten meters over the roof of the car before lying motionless on the asphalt. Despite immediate rescue efforts, the pensioner succumbed to serious head injuries on the way to hospital.

The 26-year-old hit-and-run driver must now live with the burden of destroying a human life through his own recklessness. Not only that he is now undergoing psychotherapy and has written a long letter to the relatives to deal with it. Much sadder is the defendant’s late realization during the trial: “I wouldn’t have been dependent on a car at all. But I still felt able to ride.”

He was also not distracted while driving. “I simply didn’t see the woman.” Motor vehicle expert Christian Wolf concludes in his traffic report that the driver involved in the accident must have been driving between 59 and 62 km/h a few seconds before the collision and only afterwards. Emergency braking was applied during the collision. “If he had driven a maximum of 40 km/h, he would not have hit the pedestrian in the first place.”

The verdict – which is not yet legally binding – in detail: 15 months in prison, ten of which were suspended by Judge Alexander Wehinger. He awards the survivors a total of 400 euros.