1/2 Photo: Jeroen Stuve/SQ Vision.
A trip to the Kentucky Fried Chicken in Breda with some friends went completely wrong last year. The young driver (then 19) from Rijen was driving far too fast in the rural area and skidded. The blow to a tree left his best friend permanently paralyzed in his legs.
Both friends were present in the court in Breda on Tuesday afternoon. Despite the accident, the friendship has remained intact and that is sometimes different. The young driver, now 20, sits on the right in front of the judge, together with his lawyer. To his left sits his best friend, in a wheelchair. And he says that he has suffered an incomplete spinal cord injury, in addition to several fractures. He can no longer move his feet and lower legs and it seems to stay that way forever. This young man cannot move without a wheelchair or crutches. He was in the hospital for a month and a half and then had to recuperate for a long time.
He remembers nothing about that Tuesday evening, October 1, last year. The driver still does. It was a nice evening and they went from Molenschot to the Kentucky Fried Chicken in Breda, via the Leijweg in the outskirts of Dorst. But the driver was driving his old Honda Civic way too fast and skidded on a mud track in a bend. He tried to save the situation, but could no longer avoid one of the many trees.
Investigations have shown that the car reached speeds of 102 to 136 kilometers per hour just before the collision. And that on an unlit, narrow road, around nine o’clock in the evening, where the speed limit is only 60. “Much too fast,” the driver also concluded. He actually thought he was only driving a maximum of 80, but the police investigation shows otherwise.
“I’m still alive, but things are far from optimal”
The disabled friend looked at it all with remarkable dispassion. “I’m still alive, but things are far from optimal,” he said with a sense of understatement. The investigation into possible brain damage is still ongoing. He did talk to his friend about the accident, but not very often. Despite everything, they are still friends and have the same group of friends.
Both young men spoke softly and were still very affected by the accident. Both the judge and the public prosecutor expressed their surprise that no deaths had occurred. “When you see the devastation, it is a miracle,” said the judge.
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A difficult case, the prosecutor thought. He saw that the driver had driven irresponsibly fast as a novice driver, but also saw the friendship between the two young men and expressed the hope that it will remain that way. According to the officer, this accident is a textbook example of what not to do, but he does not have to point out the consequences to the driver. He sees this every day in his best friend and he also has to deal with it for the rest of his life.
After much deliberation, the officer decided that the driver has also been severely punished because his friend is now in a wheelchair. He therefore only demanded a small community service of 60 hours. He also demanded that the driver not be allowed to drive for six months, but that six months has already passed.
“It was a mistake.”
The judge asked the disabled friend what he thought of a punishment. But he doesn’t want his friend to be punished. “It was a mistake,” he said forgivingly. The judge told him that he would definitely take his opinion into account. “You were hit the hardest. And if you don’t think a punishment is necessary, that certainly counts for us,” he told the young man.
Afterward, the young men and their families hugged each other in the hallway. On December 9, they will hear how the court will rule on this case.
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