The criminal proceedings against the bus driver who caused a serious accident with fatal consequences for a waiting passenger at Wiesbaden main train station have now been finalized.

The bus driver had previously withdrawn his objection to the penalty order issued by the Wiesbaden district court.

In December 2020, the district court had issued a penalty order against the 67-year-old former bus driver of Eswe-Verkehrsgesellschaft for negligent homicide involving negligent bodily harm and imposed a prison sentence of ten months.

Oliver Bock

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis and for Wiesbaden.

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This sentence had been suspended.

In addition, the man's license had been withdrawn and his driver's license withdrawn.

Cars and motorcycles are excluded from the lifelong blocking period for the re-issuance of the driving license.

However, this means that he is no longer able to work as a bus driver.

Accused accepts punishment

According to the local court, it is clear that the bus driver, due to his misconduct in November 2019, is responsible for the negligent killing of a passenger waiting on the bus platform in front of the main train station and for light and serious injuries to a total of 25 other people.

They were either on the bus platform or in its vicinity or were sitting in one of the cars hit by the bus when crossing the Kaiser-Friedrich-Ring.

In the opinion of the court, the proceedings are legally terminated.

However, not all details have been clarified “safely and completely” and not all questions have been answered.

The court assumes that the bus driver could have avoided the accident.

Possibly "several causal courses" contributed to the accident.

This question could ultimately remain open, because "the accused accepts the punishment and thus admits wrongdoing".

No technical defects

In favor of the man, the court does not rule out that the driver from whom the convicted person took over the bus at the Bahnhofstrasse stop immediately before the accident had also made a mistake and set the transmission of the bus to D (Drive) instead of N (Neutral) had set.

If the vehicle had been handed over correctly, the bus might still have been stopped.

"Why such braking was ultimately not carried out remains open, and with it the question of whether the accelerator and brake pedal were mixed up," the court said.

In any case, no technical defects were found on the bus.

It is customary for first-time offenders to suspend their custodial sentence, as the accused can be given a positive social prognosis. He was not only physically injured by the accident, but was also mentally stressed.