A fine of 500 euros for continuing to drive after an accident. This was imposed on a 79-year-old man from Ommen today by the police judge. He was acquitted by the judge of dangerous driving.
The almost eighty-year-old man from Ommen was on his way to work in Assen a year ago. At the traffic lights on the Europaweg, a group of students are on their bikes and unexpectedly one of them crosses the road. “I’m scared, I think I’ll kill him and let go of the gas, I can’t get rid of that image.” The man says that he did not run a red light and shouts at the boy to watch out, then he continues to work.
The police will pick him up there a little later. While avoiding the cyclist, he hit a girl on the bicycle and other road users noted down his license plate number. “I didn’t realize that I caused a collision, then I would have gone back.” De Ommenaar says that afterwards he has good contact with the victim and her parents and that he wants to compensate the damage.
He lost his driver’s license after the accident, but has now got it back. “I was recently inspected again and that was all good.” The officer and the judge allow him to keep that driver’s license.
According to the public prosecutor, the man from Ommen could and should have known that he had caused an accident. “You can see in the photos the damage to the car and that three quarters of the bicycle hit the car. You must have heard that and perhaps also felt it in the car.” The judge agrees.
It is unclear who drove through the red light that morning. The suspect claims that he drove through a green light, the same applies to the student who crossed the road unexpectedly. Because it remained unclear who drove through the red light, the judge acquitted the man of dangerous driving.
“I think it is a high fine, I would rather give that money to the victim,” the man says in his last word. At the hearing he announced that he would not appeal. The Public Prosecution Service also refrains from doing so.