A Frenchman who was driving a speedboat involved in a collision that left two people dead and one seriously injured in Greece was charged with negligent homicide on Sunday, Greek TV public TV ERT reported.
The 44-year-old Frenchman admitted to having flown a ten-meter speedboat that struck a small wooden boat on Friday night near Porto Heli in the Peloponnese, about 170 km southwest of Athens. The prosecution gave him 24 hours to prepare his defense, said ERT. His lawyer Nikos Emmanouilidis told the press that his client would submit to "any request from the Greek authorities".
Sixty-year-old seriously injured
Two elderly Greeks who were aboard the boat were killed in the collision. A Greek sexagenarian, who would be their sister, was seriously injured and hospitalized in Athens.
The Frenchman, who could not be located for several hours after the accident, had arrived Saturday at the authorities. He said he did not try to avoid justice, saying he was injured in the accident and sought help. He assured that he had not seen the fishing boat, whose traffic lights were perhaps insufficient, according to the agency ANA. The French has undergone a blood alcohol test, the results of which will be available on Monday.
Ten other French people released
"The first indications are excessive speed of the outboard," Greek Minister of Merchant Marine Yiannis Plakiotakis told IRT television on Saturday.
Ten other Frenchmen who were on the speedboat, two men, three women and five children aged between three and fourteen, were held for questioning in Porto Heli after helping to transport the wounded woman and one of the two dead on the shore, according to the Coast Guard. They were all released Saturday.