“I knew I was driving fast, but not that it was that fast,” a 25-year-old woman from Hoogeveen told the court. On February 28 last year, she caused a serious accident on the A28 near Rouveen, causing another woman to end up in a ditch with her car.
Investigation showed that the woman was driving on the highway at 141 kilometers per hour. She also got behind the wheel while drinking four times the maximum allowed amount of alcohol.
The woman from Hoogeveen, who was visibly shaken in court, can no longer remember the accident exactly. She does know that she was tired that afternoon: “I got home late the night before the accident, and had to leave early the next morning, so I was quite tired that evening.”
She says she still has to deal with the accident every day. “It makes me sleep badly. I still have a feeling of guilt and shame every day.”
“I was free a little earlier than usual that afternoon, so I decided to visit a friend in Zwolle,” says the Hoogeveen resident. Both had a few glasses of wine there. “About two to three glasses.”
After the accident, the woman’s blood alcohol level was 0.94. While for novice drivers, which is what the woman was at the time of the accident, a maximum blood alcohol content of 0.2 is permitted.
The victim was also present at the trial. She makes an emotional statement and says that she suffered a crack in her skull in the accident, which has caused her to have a lot of difficulty with stimuli and concentration.
She emphasizes that she is grateful every day that her children were not in the car that afternoon in February. “The place where my child normally sits, the windshield had come all the way in.”
As far as she is concerned, the woman should take driving lessons again. “I think she should get her driver’s license again. If you do something like that, as far as I’m concerned, you’re not worth having a driver’s license. Then you’re just a traffic fool.”
The public prosecutor wants to impose the maximum community service order of 240 hours on the woman from Hoogeveen and a driving ban of one and a half years due to her reckless driving.
The suspect’s lawyer does not agree with this demand. According to the counsel, courts have ruled in the past in similar cases that there cannot be talk of legal recklessness.
The lawyer also requests that her client not be banned from driving. Without a driver’s license, it becomes impossible for women to work night shifts at work.
The judge will make a ruling on November 14.