Police spokesman Mattias Schuster reported this on Tuesday. During the escape, the 31-year-old also tried to escape in his car by driving the car onto the sidewalk on the Hernalser Belt where several people were walking.
But first things first: A parking sheriff checked the 31-year-old’s parked car in the Ottakringer Strasse area and discovered that the license plates were stolen. The officer called the police around 4:40 p.m. The uniformed officers arrived just as two men were getting into the car. The police tried to stop the men in the vehicle with blue lights and loudspeaker announcements. However, the driver fled. He didn’t care about stop signs, red lights and one-way lanes.
Things became particularly dangerous in the Veronikagasse – Ottakringer Straße area: The car raced across a protective path and several passers-by jumped to the side to avoid being hit. The 31-year-old raced his car across the sidewalk on the Hernalser Belt and also endangered several people. He didn’t escape the police with this maneuver either. During his escape, he may have stopped his car briefly: his passenger jumped out of the car and initially escaped unrecognized.
Dangerous maneuvers
In the Lerchenfelder Belt – Friedmanngasse area he drove through the intersection again when the red light was running, drove his car onto the sidewalk once again and hit a house in the area. The 31-year-old collided with two other vehicles in his car in Schellhammergasse and Friedmanngasse. The two drivers, a 56-year-old woman and a 34-year-old man, were slightly injured. However, the woman had to receive emergency medical care and be taken to hospital for further evaluation of a hand injury. The driver also rammed two patrol cars, and a police officer was also slightly injured.
At the inner Hernals belt near the police detention center, the police stopped the man by blocking his car so that he could no longer drive. He then started to sprint on foot, but the police officers were faster. He vigorously resisted the arrest. Another officer suffered minor injuries to his knee and hand as a result of his kicks. The Austrian citizen was initially taken into police custody; his questioning was not initially possible. The police found narcotics – presumably cannabis – and tablets in his car. The suspicion was that the 31-year-old was impaired by drugs; in addition to cannabis, cocaine or another stimulant drug could also have been involved. The public prosecutor therefore ordered checks on the hair, urine and blood. The 31-year-old’s car was seized.
Meanwhile, there were traffic checks by the Meidling city police command on Tuesday night. They caught 21 drug users and one alcoholic. They took away the driving licenses of five road users. Two were arrested for illegally staying in Austria. There were also five reports of a lack of driving authorization, 238 reports and 75 executive mandates in the traffic sector and 153 alcohol tests.
