Eyeball pierced

Child blind after screw accident: Who is to blame?

A girl got stuck on this screw on her way home from kindergarten - with her eye. The child has been blind ever since. Who is responsible?(Bild: Rie-Press Adalbert Rieder)

A terrible accident has occurred in Carinthia. A four-year-old girl was walking home from kindergarten close to a tennis court - and hit her left eyeball against a protruding rusty screw. The little girl lost her sight. Does someone now have to pay for it?

2.6 centimeters. That's how far a screw protruded 95 centimetres from a tubular steel corner post of a wire mesh fence at a tennis court in Upper Carinthia. This poses no danger to adults - but a little four-year-old girl got too close and her eye was caught directly in the screw. The consequences are devastating. For six years now, a trial has been going on to find out who was partly responsible for the accident. With astonishing findings from the judiciary.