Last week, the Passau District Court made a verdict in the case of a Czech truck driver who at the beginning of this year committed an extremely dangerous overtaking almost causing a head-on collision with a passing bus. The court sentenced the driver to prison. The verdict is to scare off other drivers from this type of behaviour.
On 22 January 2019, a Czech truck driver was overtaking another truck, risking a frontal collision with a bus on the German B12 federal road near the Bavarian city of Freyung.
Perhaps the driver would not have suffered any consequences of this gross recklessness if his behaviour was not recorded from the vehicle cabin by another trucker who published the film on Facebook. A few days after the incident, the police managed to locate the driver who put other traffic participants at risk.
Shortly after the video about the Czech driver’s manoeuvre was published, he was sacked, and soon after that, the German prosecutor issued a European arrest warrant for him. The man was held in prison in the Czech Republic for trial. The prosecutor’s office originally wanted to charge him with attempted murder, but the court did not allow the indictment in this form.
Ultimately, the prosecutor demanded 3 years imprisonment for the Czech driver for creating a traffic hazard, while the defence fought for a suspended sentence. Finally, the judges decided that the driver will go to jail for 2 years and 3 months. The man also lost his driving license for 4 years.
You can watch the video mentioned above here. According to road safety experts, the distance between the vehicles could not have been more than 30 to 40 centimetres.
There was no fatal accident only due to the prompt reaction of the other two drivers, “said the judge. “We can’t prove it, but a sober and careful driver doesn’t drive that way,” he added.