Causing accidents

More than 2 per mille: Conditional imprisonment for drunk drivers

Two drivers who caused serious accidents while intoxicated were sentenced to eight months' probation and fines. They were both convicted of causing bodily harm through negligence.

This accident could have ended very differently - with five fatalities, for example," the public prosecutor sums it up. After all, with a blood alcohol level of 2.9, many others would probably not even have been able to find their car. For a 56-year-old, however, the copious consumption of alcohol was no reason not to get behind the wheel.

With fatal consequences. Because the journey in mid-August ended for the Mostviertel native and his co-driver sideways into an embankment. His mother and her carer were seriously injured. They suffered broken collarbones and ribs. The 56-year-old has now pleaded guilty in court. But how did it get this far?

On the way to the birthday party
"I had celebrated the night before, and the next day it continued at an early morning party," he explains. Then he picked up his mother and her nurse to go to a birthday party together. Until he crashed the car. A photo of the wreckage shows a can of beer in the center console of the vehicle.

"I don't drink that kind," the defendant tries to dismiss the evidence. He was sentenced to eight months' conditional imprisonment plus a fine and ordered to pay €4,100 in damages for negligent bodily harm.

Suspended sentences handed down
Just hours earlier, a 50-year-old man also had to answer for negligent bodily harm at the St. Pölten Regional Court. He had caused an accident in the Vienna Woods with a blood alcohol level of 2.8. He was also sentenced to eight months probation and a fine.