A 64-year-old man from Deurne was suddenly hit by a car on a Sunday morning. The man ended up on the windshield and was seriously injured. Later in the day he died of his injuries in the hospital. An 18-year-old woman from Deurne was behind the wheel in her father’s car. “I haven’t seen him at all.”
The accident happened on June 25, 2023 on the Griendserveenweg in the outskirts of Deurne. Now, two years later, the woman is nervous for the three judges in the court in Den Bosch. Of course it was not her intention to drive someone, let alone drive to death.
She caught up with a cyclist with a normal speed around a quarter to twelve in the morning, she said. Then she sent to the right again and rode the 64-year-old man straight from behind. The woman was completely confused. “I thought a tree had fallen on my car,” she said in court. “But when I got out, I saw a man lying on the floor. I hadn’t seen him at all.”
When the trauma heli landed, the woman understood that it was wrong. In the evening the message came that the 64-year-old man had died in the hospital in Nijmegen.
The young woman, who is now 20, was unable to assume that she was killed someone in court. She was nervous and regularly emotional. In recent years she has had many sleepless nights of the accident and she notices that people in her area blame her for this accident.
The public prosecutor also saw that the woman had not intentionally caused this accident, but thought she had to see the cyclist. There was nothing crazy on the Griendtsveenseweg that morning and the cyclist cycled neatly on the bicycle lane, about 50 meters for the cyclist that she caught up shortly before.
Still alcohol in blood
The officer was able to explain that the woman did not see him, even though he was driving right in front of her. She still turned out to have a lot of alcohol in her blood that morning: 330 UGL, where a starting driver can only have 88 UGL in the blood. “Four times too much and that makes you less alert, also the next morning,” the officer explained.
The woman said she didn’t think about that at all. According to her, she had two gin tonic at night and she went to bed at five o’clock. But according to the public prosecutor, something is not in her story. “Or she only went to sleep much later or they were very big glass gin,” he reasoned. “If you still have so much alcohol in your blood at two o’clock in the afternoon at two o’clock, then you have drunk a lot.”
He was therefore not able to go for a punishment and collection of the driver’s license in such a serious accident. He demanded a 240 -hour community service and a two -year driving cancellation, of which eight months are conditional.
Driver’s license required
However, according to the lawyer, she cannot do without a driver’s license. To go from her house in the outskirts from Deurne to work in the hospitality industry in Asten, she needs a driver’s license. That is why her lawyer asked to impose the driving denial conditionally. The lawyer had no objection to the demanded community service sentence of 240 hours.
The young woman would like to talk to the family of the deceased cyclist. So far that has not happened yet. The court will rule on this case on September 19.