A police officer who was driving at over 80 miles per hour has escaped with a fine after he crashed into this beautiful 21-year-old woman and killed her.
The Berlin Regional Court in the German capital has ruled that the police officer, who has not been named, should pay a EUR-12,900 (GBP-11,000) fine for ‘negligent homicide’ over the death of Fabien M., 21, whose car he hit with his police car, leaving her dead in the incident that took place on 29th January 2018.
Judge Thorsten Braunschweig said that the victim bore some responsibility for the incident in which the 54-year-old police officer, who has been on sick leave since June 2018, emerged from a tunnel at 130 kilometres per hour (81 mph) and hit Fabien’s small car.
There was an anonymous tip that the policeman might have been drunk, according to German daily Bild, but this did not influence the verdict, because a reported legal mistake meant that the public prosecutor’s medical file for the police officer and any evidence it may contain could not be used, leaving the young woman’s grieving parents stunned.
It is currently unclear what this legal mistake was that caused the medical file pertaining to the police officer to be invalidated as evidence. But the judge said: “Whether he later consumed alcohol, perhaps also on duty, does not matter.”
Fabien’s dad Christian M., 52, said: “Suddenly Fabi is supposed to have been complicit, but she couldn’t have expected a car to come out of the tunnel at three times the speed limit. She only had 2.3 seconds to see him coming!”
And her shocked mum Britta, 50, said: “My daughter is dead and the policeman is free with a fine!”
But the judge blamed the young woman for her own death, saying: “The siren and blue light were clearly visible in her rear-view mirror. If she had behaved correctly, she should have seen him and responded.”
She had reportedly turned left into a parking spot in front of the police car, crossing several lanes. The judge added: “On her part, a blatant violation of the highway code.”
The judge described the handling of the accident by the police as “chaotic” and added that “it would have been necessary to determine whether the accused had been drunk” at the time, but that did not happen, for reasons that remain unexplained.
It was determined that he should not have been driving faster than 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph), but that driving at 130 kph (80 mph) constituted “medium negligence”, with the judge adding that police cars are allowed to drive that fast.
The police officer will therefore not lose his licence or face a driving ban.
Britta said: “He’s leaving here as a free man! It’s not fair!”
A lower court had ruled in December 2020 to penalise the police officer with one year and two months’ imprisonment on probation. However, that ruling is now superseded by the latest one.
It is currently unclear if the young woman’s family can appeal this latest verdict.
