A German kills three people with her car. The Italian investigators are not assuming intent – a lawyer explains the consequences the woman has to reckon with.
Munich/Santo Stefano di Cadore – In Italy on Thursday (July 6), a fatal crash killed three people. A 31-year-old woman from Lower Bavaria hit a group of pedestrians with her car in the northern Italian town of Santo Stefano di Cadore near the Austrian border. A two-year-old boy, his father and grandmother died in the accident. The boy’s mother was also injured and had to be treated in a clinic, and according to media reports, the grandfather suffered a heart attack.
31-year-old German causes deadly crash in Italy – couldn’t she ‘control her anger’?
Investigators are still puzzled as to how the terrible accident could have happened. In the meantime, they are not assuming that the 31-year-old had acted intentionally. Rather, it became known that the German could be in an exceptional mental situation. According to official information, she is currently being treated psychiatrically and is currently not able to be questioned.
The responsible prosecutor Paolo Luca said during a press conference that the German could have been in a state of anger. The reason for this has yet to be clarified. However, Luca believes that the 31-year-old driver may have been distracted from the road. “She seems like someone who can’t control her anger,” the prosecutor said.
Death drive in Italy: What punishment does the 31-year-old driver from Germany face?
But what punishment could the deadly collision entail for the German? According to Luca, road homicide, which is a criminal offense in Italy, can carry a prison sentence of two to seven years per fatality. If several people die in an accident, a maximum of 18 years imprisonment can be imposed. Only in the case of aggravating factors, such as intent or twice the speed allowed, can the penalty be even higher. Since there is a speed limit of 50 km/h in the center of Santo Stefano and the German car was estimated to be around 90 kilometers per hour, the second factor should not apply.
An expert in German traffic law arranged opposite Merkur.de from IPPEN.MEDIA what sentence the 31-year-old would face in Germany. Although “the act was committed in Italy to the detriment of Italian citizens,” explained lawyer and traffic law expert Steffen Klug from the portal gofreem.de. Therefore, “Italian law applies first”.
“When determining the sentence in Germany, the person of the perpetrator is taken into account”
The lawyer continues: “According to German law (as a German citizen, the accused is also subject to this) there would be a conviction for triple murder (paragraph 211 of the Criminal Code). The sentence of life imprisonment (at least 15 years imprisonment) is only imposed in the case of murder , if someone “kills another person intentionally and also fulfills a murder criterion”, Klug affirmed: “Depending on the motive, a ‘base motive’ could also qualify the act for murder.” According to the latest statements by public prosecutor Luca, that does not seem to be the case to be.
According to the legal expert, the “type of committing the crime by means of a car with excessive speed and no skid marks” could in principle “fulfill the murder criteria of the ‘dangerous substance'”, according to Klug. However, “when determining the level of punishment in Germany, the person of the perpetrator, the consequences of the crime, the way in which the crime was committed and the behavior after the crime are taken into account”. A possible mental illness of the Germans would probably affect the sentence in this country. The grandfather of the deceased boy had meanwhile described the accident on Friday (July 7) as “murder on the street”.
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