Legal proceedings The Court of Appeal began dealing with the 2018 Kuopio bus accident, in which four people died – in Käräjoki, the driver was sentenced to almost two years in absolute prison.

Eastern Finland the court of appeal began dealing with a bus accident in kuopio in august 2018, in which four people died and several were injured.

The accident happened when a bus was transporting members of a karaoke club from Kalix, Sweden, to a spa holiday in Kuopio. The accident happened at 2.38 pm in Kuopio, when the bus derailed at the junction of the motorway and Kolmisope and fell off the bridge to the railway.

In December last year, the Pohjois-Savo District Court sentenced the man who drove the bus to one year and ten months in prison. According to the court, the man was guilty of four aggravated deaths, thirteen gross injuries and a serious endangerment of traffic safety. In addition, he was sentenced to pay compensation.

The 70-year-old driver appealed the district court’s verdict to the Court of Appeal. The man demands that he be convicted of those crimes in basic form instead of aggravated crimes. He also claims that the penalty should be reduced and that the compensation imposed on the insurance company should be rejected or, in the alternative, reduced.

District Court according to the driver drove the whole journey recklessly and neglected to observe the care and caution required by the circumstances. In addition, he drove too hard, the verdict said.

Passengers said they feared during the trip and pointed out to the driver about his driving style.

According to the district court, the man should have taken into account the braking distance of the bus as well as when driving a large crowd on a busy road to ensure safety and compliance with traffic rules.

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The man in court could not say the reason for not braking.

“If there had been visual impediments while driving, or if the sun had dazzled the accused, or if his perceptual ability had been reduced due to emotional turmoil, he would have had an even greater reason to reduce speed by applying the brake and adjust the pace to a safe level,” the district court said.

The driver himself said he did not feel tired while driving. However, according to the district court, the man’s driving style showed that his state of alertness had to be impaired throughout the run.

District Court according to the driver did not brake at any point after driving into the deceleration lane. The man in court could not say the reason for not braking. He said he noticed that the traffic he was facing too late was stopped and accidentally pressed the gas.

The Accident Investigation Board said in a report in 2019 that no technical faults were found in the bus, nor in the brakes. The district court’s ruling also found that there was no fault in the brakes and no obstacle under the brake pedal that would have prevented braking.