Driver: "I'm sorry"
Prison sentence for wrong-way driving through the center of Salzburg
A man from Salzburg (34) drove his company car over sidewalks and pedestrian bridges while intoxicated, endangering several people. He was remorseful at the trial and confessed. Now he is to serve two years.
"I'm really sorry," were the only words spoken by the accused man from Salzburg (34) at the trial on Wednesday in Salzburg Provincial Court. His mad drive while intoxicated had triggered a large-scale police operation in the center of Salzburg on 26 June 2023: Because the worker had raced through the city in his company car - on sidewalks and cycle paths, even over the Müllner Steg and through the spa gardens at Mirabell Palace.
The life-threatening odyssey only ended in the Andräviertel district - when a police officer rammed into the 34-year-old's company car.
In the course of the arrest, there were scuffles. Initially, the police only wanted to check the driver because he had been honking and gesticulating wildly in a traffic jam.
The public prosecutor's office listed a whole range of charges: from intentional endangerment of the public, serious damage to property and assault to attempted resistance to public authority.
He had been intoxicated by drugs and regretted the whole thing very much, said defense lawyer Kurt Jelinek, referring to his "impaired sanity" as a result.
An hour and a half after the trial began, Judge Martina Kocher announced the sentence: two years unconditional imprisonment. And she used clear words in her reasoning: "The police officers' interrogations reveal desperation and tension. There were a lot of people in the city that day, many of them with children. And you raced through the old town in your car as if stung by a tarantula! You endangered an incredible number of people."
Lawyer wants to reduce prison sentence through appeal
For Kocher, there was no question: "It's nothing short of a miracle that nothing more happened." Due to this "massive lack of action", as the judge put it, only an unconditional sentence was justified. This is exactly what Jelinek sees differently and has therefore announced an appeal: The Higher Regional Court will therefore still decide on the amount of the sentence. The verdict is therefore not yet final.
Kommentare
Liebe Leserin, lieber Leser,
die Kommentarfunktion steht Ihnen ab 6 Uhr wieder wie gewohnt zur Verfügung.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
das krone.at-Team
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.