Fatal alcohol accident

“There is no suitable punishment for this”

Tobias (25) and Alina (22) mourn the loss of their brother Maximilian (19), who was killed by a drunken wrong-way driver.(Bild: Markus Wenzel)

What punishment is just when a drunk driver takes a family's son and brother? The judge and the relatives of a 19-year-old who was killed by a drunk driver struggled with this question. It was a rarely emotional trial involving a man who made no secret of his use of alcohol.

"I would like to apologize, express my condolences. I shot myself in the foot." - Leaning on crutches and turning to his parents and three of his five siblings, the accused, who had taken the life of 19-year-old Maximilian H. as a drunk driver in September last year, sought forgiveness in the Wels courtroom. Some relatives looked the 47-year-old in the eye, others had to turn away - what they had in common was that there was no longer any room for tears.

No memory
The accused openly admitted that he had "gone for a drink" after a fire department operation - "a few beers, some schnapps", he didn't know exactly. There is also no memory of how he then drove the wrong way onto the Westautobahn near Laakirchen and drove ten kilometers as a wrong-way driver. His memory only returned after the accident. But he still knew that they wanted to stop him from driving himself. The alcohol test showed 1.78 per mille!

The defendant came to the trial on crutches - he had also suffered serious injuries in the accident himself(Bild: Markus Wenzel)

Driver's license already gone twice, but that no longer applies
"An insane drive," said Judge Christina Steininger-Höller, who asked what had happened with alleged previous driving license withdrawals due to alcohol, as there was no official information about this. "Twice," admitted the 47-year-old. He also admitted that he had often driven drunk, but "never to the point where I couldn't drive". "That's a subjective assessment," said the judge; answer: "Yes."

"A signal must be set"
Defense lawyer Andreas Mauhart spoke of a "big mistake" on the part of his client, who had otherwise "always been a good person" - and that the driving license withdrawals were a long time ago and had therefore been erased. However, the judge took this into account when sentencing him because the defendant had also told her himself. "Finding an appropriate sentence is almost presumptuous," she said, but spoke of a signal that had to be set. For the defendant himself, but above all for the general public. The sentence: 18 months in prison, six of them unconditional. Of the 61,000 euros in grief compensation demanded for relatives, 17,000 euros were awarded. The verdict is not final.

An important step on the road to mourning
"There is no suitable punishment for this anyway," said two of the siblings and their representative Michael Lanzinger, but felt that the prison sentence was an important and correct step on the path to mourning. Incidentally, the accused had sworn not to have drunk a drop of alcohol since the accident.