Driver: "I'm sorry"

Prison sentence for wrong-way driving through the center of Salzburg

This is where the mad dash ended when a police vehicle rammed into the company car.(Bild: Tschepp Markus, Krone KREATIV)

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. 

The crazy drive took him halfway across the city.(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

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.