The trial of a bus driver who is said to have caused a fatal accident in September 2019 began at the Frankfurt district court on Friday. The public prosecutor’s office accuses the thirty-three-year-old of negligent homicide and bodily harm. He is said to have driven his bus through a red light into an intersection in Rödelheim. According to the prosecution, the traffic light had already been red for 24 seconds at this point. The bus collided with a Mercedes turning from the opposite direction, which was thrown around 30 meters as a result. The 59-year-old passenger, the driver’s mother, died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Several passengers on the bus were also injured. “A situation that you don’t forget.” The bus driver denied in court that he had made a mistake. He says the traffic light was green “without a doubt.” The Mercedes was suddenly in front of him, so he had no chance to avoid it. The man still works as a bus driver today and still drives the same route. He thinks about the accident constantly: “It’s a situation you don’t forget. I am incredibly sorry that a woman died.” There are different statements that day on the central question of this trial, whether the traffic light was red or green for the bus driver. A witness who was sitting on the bus during the accident confirms the defendant’s statement. She also claims to have seen that the traffic light for the bus was green. However, two other witnesses who were in the turning lane behind the Mercedes say: The traffic light for the Mercedes was also green. Since the trial only begins five years after the accident, some witnesses can no longer provide precise details when asked remember. A witness also says that she has now “saved the event incorrectly”. The reason for this long duration of the proceedings is a civil dispute between the co-plaintiffs and the defendant. At that time, the court wanted to wait for the outcome of the civil case involving claims for damages and compensation for pain and suffering between the relatives of the victims and the driver, as was stated in a statement from the German Press Agency at the time. An expert “definitely” rules out technical errors. An expert brings clarity that day, whom the court commissioned to provide an expert opinion and who testifies as a witness. His report shows: Neither of these two versions can be correct.More on the subjectAccording to the expert, there are “three causes that led to this terrible accident”: The Mercedes drove into the intersection on red or at the end of the yellow phase, was in the intersection area waited an unusually long time to turn around instead of turning left as planned, and the bus driver must also have gone through the red light. This is shown, among other things, by evaluations of the traffic light switching, a video from the surveillance camera in the bus and the location where the collision occurred. He “definitely” rules out an error in the traffic light system. The process will continue next week. According to current planning, the verdict will then be announced.
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