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From , March 22, 2024, 4:35 p.m
Image: PETER LINDNER (APA)
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Image: PETER LINDNER (APA)
KLAGENFURT. 42 injured and one 19-year-old Upper Austrian woman killed: a devastating bus accident in Carinthia had legal consequences on Friday. The deceased’s friend, who was sitting next to her at the time of the accident, remains unwell.
“Music is the language of angels,” says the obituary of the Weibern Music Association, in memory of 19-year-old Jana R. The tragic accidental death of the young Upper Austrian last year affected many people very deeply.
The musical talent was a passenger in a Flix long-distance coach that was traveling from Prague to Trieste. She got on in Linz accompanied by her boyfriend to meet her family members in Italy.
The fully occupied double-decker was traveling on the B317 near Micheldorf in Carinthia in the St. Veit an der Glan district.
Accident happened early in the morning
It was September 19, 2023, 4:48 a.m., a new day had dawned, when the devastating accident happened.
The bus continued straight ahead in a slight left-hand bend; a driver behind it saw sparks flying as the passenger transport vehicle touched the guard rail and then crashed head-on into the concrete wall.
Image: GERT EGGENBERGER (APA)
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Image: GERT EGGENBERGER (APA)
42 people were injured, some seriously, and any emergency medical help came too late for the aspiring music student from the Grieskirchen district.
“Didn’t feel tired”
“I didn’t feel tired,” said the bus driver, who was charged with gross negligence, in court yesterday. An interpreter translated the 27-year-old Ukrainian’s original statement that he had reached for a water bottle shortly before the accident as “nonsense.”
The prosecutor accused the driver of falling asleep at the wheel while he was very tired. “He was repeatedly driving in the opposite lane for several seconds and only had his eyes half open,” said the prosecutor.
Surveillance camera filmed driver
The surveillance video from the bus’s dashcam, which also filmed the driver’s area, shows the driver trying to turn the steering wheel at the last moment.
According to the results of the investigation, the roster at the time stipulated that the two drivers worked six days in a row (sometimes at night) and were then allowed to take three days off.
The second bus driver, with whom the defendant took turns, said that he did not notice anything unusual about his colleague on the day of the accident.
Driven in serpentine lines
The driver who was driving behind the double-decker recalled in the witness stand: “I actually started to overtake, but I saw that the bus was driving in a serpentine route, so I didn’t do it.”
According to the expert, overtiredness was clearly the cause of the accident; she spoke of “a trance-like state or sleeping with eyes open.”
Jana’s boyfriend was sitting next to the 19-year-old when the accident happened when she died. The young man has given up his plan to study medicine for the time being. He suffers from severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, the victim’s lawyer told the court. This was reported by the Kleine Zeitung.
Forgiveness instead of retaliation
But the victim side is not interested in revenge or satisfaction. On the contrary, the victim’s family members show understanding for the bus driver’s situation.
Yesterday they claimed a bereavement allowance of just 2,000 euros, a symbolic gesture. The family’s legal representative emphasized that they didn’t want to cause any more “damage” to the defendant.
The judgment, which is conditional for two years, is already legally binding.
