A driver who killed a four-year-old girl when he took his car drifting on the snow has been given probation after he apologised for the moment of “absolute madness” that led him to drive in the area where children were playing.
The verdict at the trial in the city of Gera, in the central German state of Thuringia, was handed down yesterday (29th November).
It saw the defendant, named only as Kevin S. due to strict local privacy laws, given 18 months on probation and a 12-month driving ban.
The defendant will also have to pay EUR 3,000 (GBP 2,550) to redo his driving lessons. But Kevin S. will not spend any time behind bars despite the incident having cost Daria, 4, her life.
Judge Joachim Meier said: “You bear massive guilt over this accident, even if moral complicity is to be sought with the others in the group. You are the one who hit her in the end, that is also personal bad luck.
“The only one who really had no responsibility for what happened is little Daria.”
Kevin S. drove to a snow-covered field in Gera with the girl’s father and another couple including their three children on a January day.
According to Kevin S., they tied the children’s sledges to their cars and pulled them across the field.
The adults drifted across the field in their cars during breaks from ‘sledging’ with the children.
When he drove back to the group after a drift drive, he lost control of his SUV and crashed into a parked van.
The four-year-old was sitting on a sled behind the van and was sandwiched between the vehicles. She died of serious injuries, according to prosecutors.
Kevin S. was reportedly attacked several times in the village and is receiving psychological treatment. He wrote an apology letter to the parents and apologised again in court when the father, who has not been named, was on the witness stand.
He said: “It was absolutely the wrong decision, we shouldn’t have done it, and I’m responsible for the fact that the day ended like this.”
The girl’s mother, also unnamed, was a joint plaintiff in the proceedings.
