Two years in prison

No driver’s license, but driving through town at 170 km/h

On Monday, the Carinthian had to answer to the court: "I was originally very sorry," he said.(Bild: Kerstin Wassermann)

It is nothing short of a miracle that there were no casualties on this trip: just under a month ago, a 64-year-old man sped away from the police while drunk - at monkey speed, with risky maneuvers and without a driver's license. Only a tree stopped the mad dash, for which the Carinthian now had to answer in court ...

Mr. S. is no newcomer to court. The 64-year-old already has 27 previous convictions. Nevertheless, he tries to act as if everything has gone well in his life so far and he has always behaved well. "I don't know what exactly happened," he says during the trial at Klagenfurt Regional Court. "I'm not usually like that!"

And what happened is described by public prosecutor Christian Pirker: "The defendant should have been stopped at a police checkpoint. But he disregarded the signs and accelerated immediately. He drove away from the officers at breakneck speed for a total of around 20 kilometers. His partner was in the passenger seat - but he not only put her, but many other people's lives in danger."

"Extremely dangerous situation!"
And that's no exaggeration, as there are police videos of the crazy drive that show what the driver did with his Volvo: Despite the rain, he sped through towns around Völkermarkt at between 120 and 170 km/h, ignored road closures, stop signs, restricted lines, overtook in tunnels, forced other drivers to make emergency stops, didn't give a damn about any traffic rules. "It was extremely dangerous," reports a police officer. "We thought about how we could stop him. Colleagues with stop sticks were still too far away." These are "nail tapes" that could be used to force such amok drivers to stop. The idea of ramming the driver was also on the table. "But he had a woman with him." Fortunately, the 64-year-old ended up hitting a tree without anyone coming to any harm.

"Fortunately", the defendant is also grateful. Who, by the way, has never had a driving license in his life. "I wanted to get one when I was 18, but the gendarmerie was weird, so that's how it went." In other words, the man has been driving without a license for 46 years (!) and has been convicted several times for it. This is unlikely to have impressed him. Incidentally, it is unclear how much he had drunk - he refused to take the breathalyzer test. "What are we supposed to do with you?" puzzled Judge Christian Liebhauser-Karl. "Somehow the car seems to be a sacred cow to you."

A total of 28 months in prison
The sentence is swift: two years in prison, plus four months from an old sentence. The Carinthian must therefore serve a total of 28 months behind bars. He accepts. "After that, I can retire anyway," he says. "Will you promise me that you won't do anything wrong then and that you'll understand that you're not allowed to drive?" "Yes." We'll see.