At a public hearing held on February 8, 2023, the Debrecen District Court sentenced the man whose multiple traffic violations killed a pedestrian in September 2021 in Debrecen, at one of the Böszörményi pedestrian crossings, to 2 years in prison. The court also prohibited the defendant from driving for 2 years and 6 months and ordered him to pay HUF 430,000 in criminal costs.
At the preparatory meeting held earlier on November 2, 2022, the accused admitted to committing the crime, however, he did not waive his right to a trial and his defense counsel proposed the questioning of two witnesses in the case. The court did not prove the facts and the question of guilt, only in relation to the imposition of the punishment. At the trial, the court allowed the questioning of the two witnesses proposed by the defense, and then declared the evidentiary procedure completed.
According to the judgment, on September 6, 2021, early in the morning, the accused was driving a car in Debrecen, on Böszörményi út, which is a busy two-lane road. At the time of the accident, there was little traffic, and the traffic light controlling the traffic on the road section gave a flashing yellow signal. There were four people in the car, everyone was wearing a seat belt.
Due to the extreme inattention of the driver, he noticed very late that a vehicle had stopped in front of him in both traffic lanes, as well as next to him, in front of the designated pedestrian crossing, where the 63-year-old woman was continuously crossing at a normal pace. At the moment of entering the roadway, the car driven by the accused was still 197 meters away from the scene of the crime, and after 10.6 seconds, with a significant delay in detection, with emergency braking applied 1.3 seconds before the collision, it hit the pedestrian at a speed of 62 km/h. As a result of the accident, the victim suffered such serious, life-threatening injuries that she died on the spot. The fatal accident occurred due to the defendant’s grossly negligent violation of KRESZ rules.
Judge Dr. Zsolt Vágó said during the justification of the sentence that a significant delay in detection led to the fatal accident, and that the imposition of a prison sentence and a longer-term ban from driving was also justified by the fact that the accused posed a potential danger to road users. The judge assessed as an aggravating circumstance the proliferation of similar traffic violations at the local and national level, the gross violation of the basic traffic rule, and the fact that the accused had already been punished, albeit not for committing a traffic crime. Aggravating factors were also the fact that the crime that is the subject of the present proceedings was committed under the scope of other criminal proceedings – initiated for the offense of driving while intoxicated – as well as the defendant’s multiple violations of traffic rules, including exceeding the maximum speed allowed for the given road section.
At the same time, he took into account as mitigating circumstances the fact that the accused confessed and showed remorse, as well as the passage of time and the fact that he has to provide for two minor children.
The prosecutor took note of the court’s verdict, while the accused and his defense lawyer reserved three working days to think about the notification of the legal remedy statement.
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