Prison sentence demanded for fatal accident involving defective car

Two suspects of causing a fatal collision on the A16 near Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht on November 9, 2020 were sentenced to 27 weeks in prison on Tuesday. This is reported by ANP. This concerns the driver and the MOT inspector of the commercial vehicle that came to a standstill on the highway around 7 p.m., causing a van to crash into the back of it. The 1-year-old boy who was in that van with his father died from his injuries.

The Public Prosecution Service believes that both the driver and the inspector are to blame for the child’s death. The 49-year-old man from The Hague is said to have driven recklessly. The also 49-year-old owner of an MOT inspection company in Rotterdam acted ‘carelessly, negligently and negligently’ by approving a defective car, according to the public prosecutor. In addition to the prison sentence, she demands that the driver is not allowed to drive for thirty months and that the inspector is not allowed to practice his profession for two years.

The Public Prosecution Service blames the driver for not steering the car to an emergency lane when it quickly slowed down. The man says the engine stalled, the lights went out and he could no longer steer. Twelve seconds before the collision, he called from the car to the company from which he had bought the car earlier that day, for more than 4,000 euros. “I didn’t realize that I was being scammed,” the former auto mechanic said in court. “But I had bought a pig in a poke.”

Gas tank

After the accident, police discovered on the spot that the car’s gas tank was empty. Converted to gas it wanted to start again. Dozens of serious defects in the vehicle were later discovered. According to the inspector, this was not the case when he approved the car earlier that day. He suspects that ‘everything came loose during the collision’.

The court in Rotterdam will rule in the case against the two suspects on May 7. The preparation of the criminal case against the 55-year-old car saleswoman from St. Willebrord is still ongoing. Next month, her lawyer may interrogate witnesses again, the judge decided on Tuesday. He said he wanted to hurry, because “the whole thing has taken far too long.”

Independer previously reported, based on data from the police and Rijkswaterstaat, that the number of traffic accidents is increasing. In 2022, 122 thousand accidents were registered, an increase of 6.8 percent compared to a year earlier.