Victim seriously injured

Crashed head-on into woman: “She should learn respect”

The 17-year-old rammed a 53-year-old woman head-on with his e-scooter in Vienna.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/A.Richter Stock A., Krone KREATIV)

A young duo (16 and 17) on an e-scooter rammed into a principal at high speed in a pedestrian zone in Favoriten in October. The woman suffered serious injuries. The victim will never forget the grin on the driver's face just before the collision. And she can't get the statement made by one of the two Syrians after the crash out of her head either.

Experienced juvenile court judge Daniela Zwangsleitner is not easily flustered. But at the trial for negligent bodily harm in Vienna's Landl district on Monday, her nerves are also strained. First, the 17-year-old defendant arrives 20 minutes late for his trial, then he can't remember his home address. The accused is also unable to answer whether he receives 1,000 euros a month in social welfare, as he filled in on a form, or 400, as he claims in court. The statements he makes about the crime are surprising: "I haven't been in Austria long. I didn't know it was illegal."

I haven't been in Austria for long. I didn't know it was illegal.

Der Angeklagte zur Richterin

Director seriously injured
"Two of you raced through the pedestrian zone on a scooter. Don't think you can get through here with ignorance," Zwangsleitner now gets louder. On October 7, 2024, the young man drove the electric scooter together with a "passenger" into a crowd of people on Keplerplatz in Vienna-Favoriten and rammed into a woman head-on. The victim, a director, was thrown to the ground and suffered a fractured sternum, a bruised skull and a fractured tibia. The 53-year-old woman had to undergo surgery due to a brain haemorrhage.

The 17-year-old rammed a 53-year-old woman head-on with his e-scooter in Vienna.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/A.Richter Stock A., Krone KREATIV)

In the courtroom, she testified as a witness: "There was a lot going on. I was heading towards the subway. Suddenly the scooter was in front of me and I remember exactly: the driver smiled at me before he rammed into me. If it was unintentional, he would have looked startled."

Experienced juvenile court judge Daniela Zwangsleitner

(Bild: Holl Reinhard)

Witnesses from the crowd observed the incident and reported that the e-scooter raced towards the crowd at very high speed without swerving. Both drivers fell when they collided with the woman and found the incident very amusing: "They kept laughing." And the icing on the cake: as the woman lay seriously injured on the ground, one of them said to her disparagingly: "She should learn to have respect for me."

Five months conditional imprisonment
The defendant and his 16-year-old passenger, who was particularly disrespectful as a witness and who owned the e-scooter, deny all of this. They claim to have taken care of the woman on the spot and apologized. "Are you telling me that the crowd is lying?" said Ms. Rat. "I rather think you're lying," she sentences the teenager to five months' conditional imprisonment and 3,000 euros in damages for negligent bodily harm.

The victim is referred to civil proceedings for the remaining claims - the woman demanded 20,000 euros. "Believe me, you will have to pay for this incident for a very long time," says the judge, adding: "You must learn to have respect, not the victim. The woman could have died." After his appearance in Landl, the co-driver faces a charge of giving false evidence.