"Will never come back" 2 children die in street race - woman faces life in prison

The speed limit is 70 km/h, two cars drive side by side at almost 180 km/h - and in the end two children die. The Hanover Regional Court delivers a harsh verdict. The parents' reaction is clear.

DPA

25.07.2024, 07:56

25.07.2024, 08:13

dpa

No verdict can comfort the distraught mother - whatever the outcome. "Other children go to school, mine are in their graves," said the weeping woman. Her husband tried to keep his composure. He said: "I know my children aren't coming back." His children, two little boys aged two and six, died in February 2022 when the family car was involved in a banned car race in Barsinghausen near Hanover. A 42-year-old woman must now serve life in prison for murder, while her 41-year-old rival in the race must serve four years.

After the verdict, Judge Britta Schlingmann apologized to the heartbroken family: "You get the impression that the trial is only about the defendants and their feelings, less about the victims. However, she wanted to say how sorry she was for what the family had had to endure during the trial - the death of the children could not be made up for with the trial. The children's father said that anyone who drives a car must also think about other people.

Then the judge became clear: the court was convinced that the convicts had accepted the deaths of others and the collision with oncoming traffic, she said in her reasons for the verdict. The verdict was for murder in two cases, attempted murder, dangerous bodily harm and illegal car racing resulting in death. The driving license of the convicted Polish woman is to be confiscated for five years, that of the German-Italian for three years. With this sentence, the court followed the prosecution's demand.

Driving at 180 instead of 70

What exactly happened? After leaving Barsinghausen, the two convicts engaged in an illegal car race. The woman raced about 500 meters in her powerful car on the opposite lane to overtake her rival, initially on a straight stretch of road. As she entered a bend - at speeds of up to 180 kilometers per hour - she lost control of her car. This resulted in a collision with oncoming traffic. The car of the family of four was thrown into a paddock. The little boys in the back seat died, even though they were wearing their seatbelts. Their parents and the driver of another car were seriously injured. The speed limit on the road is 70 km/h.

During the trial, it became clear that the woman often drove too fast - former work colleagues attested to her "high-speed" driving style. She had always driven high-powered vehicles and had also been flashed, said the public prosecutor in her summation.

Judge Schlingmann explained: "The decisive moment is when they both drove into the bend. That is the moment when both defendants gave up control of the situation." They could not have seen what was behind the bend, which is a traffic situation that "can hardly be surpassed in terms of danger". Such a situation is not controllable and inevitably leads to the death or injury of road users. Both drivers had accepted these consequences because they did not want to give way in the race.

Although the two convicted men were deeply affected and both had apologized to the family, the unfortunate father was unable to do anything with this - and the court was ultimately unable to take it into account. The 42-year-old often looked down during the trial, crying time and again.

It was by no means the first trial in the case: it had to be retried because the Federal Court of Justice had largely overturned the first verdict from April 2023 due to legal errors. At that time, the main defendant had been sentenced to six years in prison and the German-Italian co-defendant to four years. Originally, the sentence was for unlicensed motor vehicle racing resulting in death. The sentence for the man was now capped for formal reasons - the public prosecutor's office had not lodged an appeal in his case, the judge explained.

But the new verdict may not be the end of the story: lawyer Yana Tchelpanova, one of the 42-year-old's defense attorneys, announced in the courtroom that the verdict was far from life - and: "We think it is a wrong verdict." As soon as she is in the office, she will lodge an appeal. The family's lawyer warned that if the parents of the dead children had to deal with the case again, it would be almost unbearable.