The February verdict of the District Court for Prague 4 is final, as Aleš Cimbala, a spokesman for Prague’s city prosecutors, who supervised the case as a public prosecutor in court, confirmed to Práva on Sunday. Both he and the defendant waived their rights of appeal.
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The accident took place last evening on January 22, 2019, when, according to the verdict, the bus passed the red traffic light at Lhotecká, Mariánská and U Kamýku streets and gradually knocked down two pedestrians at the crossing, while the younger of them remained under the vehicle.
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Police officers and nurses helped
The consequences of the accident could have been much worse, if not for the coincidence, when at that moment there were two police officers from the Prague special law enforcement unit and also one nurse. Together, they first rescued a severely injured woman from under the bus and gave her and the second pedestrian first aid.
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The wedged girl subsequently ended up with multiple injuries in artificial sleep in the Motol hospital, the other suffered a head injury, but was fortunately conscious and was taken to a hospital in Vinohrady.
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Drivers were threatened behind bars for up to four years after the accusation. He himself demanded a conditional cessation of his prosecution, but Cimbala’s prosecutor did not comply. “The interference with the legally protected interest and the circumstances of its violation were so serious that it was necessary to insist on a court hearing,” Cimbala told Práva.
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He could have stopped in time, he admitted the mistake
The defendant then primarily asked the court not to be sentenced to driving ban, as it would also lose the trade of a professional driver. However, Judge Eva Burešová did not comply with him either. According to Cimbala, it was necessary to impose this ban precisely because he was a professional driver, for whom “it is also necessary to assess the individual excesses associated with a gross breach of legal obligations as more serious”.
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According to an expert opinion, the convicted bus could stop safely before the edge of the intersection if it reacted in time to a change in the signal light. “However, a red Stop signal came into the intersection,” Cimbala said.
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This age-old and conscientious and reliable driver until the incident confessed to a fatal mistake in court. “He admitted that it was his fault, that he should not have gone there and that he thought he would make the turn,” a credible source familiar with the case told Práva. The public prosecutor proposed to the driver the exact same sentence that the court subsequently imposed on him on 17 February, ie the aforementioned condition of eight months (with a probationary period of one and a half years) and a driving ban, also for a year and a half. Although the man was threatened with imprisonment, he did not deserve such severe punishment, according to Cimbala.
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“The convicted person has not yet been punished by a court, has not registered a misdemeanor or has not been given penalty points in connection with driving a motor vehicle.
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