The Frankfurt Regional Court has admitted the murder charge against an SUV driver who killed two people and seriously injured another person in Frankfurt's Ostend in November 2020.

According to a statement from the court, a grand jury has opened the trial and set dates for the trial.

It starts in early April.

Anna Sophia Lang

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The 39-year-old defendant was driving a BMW X6 with 625 hp on the day of the crime.

According to the indictment, he is said to have accelerated sharply at several traffic lights when starting off on the busy Sonnemannstrasse in Ostend.

In the curve to Oskar-von-Miller-Straße, he is said to have pressed the gas pedal almost completely and initiated a "drift" "in order to reach the highest possible speed and to impress other road users with his particularly risky driving style," according to the statement of the regional court.

He is said to have switched off a safety mechanism in the car that would have prevented it from escaping.

As a result, he lost control of the BMW.

The car was thrown across the road without braking and hit a 27-year-old bicycle courier, a 31-year-old, severely visually impaired student and her 61-year-old father at more than 80 kilometers per hour.

According to the prosecutor, the father and daughter were loading a cupboard into their vehicle, which was parked on the sidewalk and was thrown against a concrete pillar as a result of the impact.

The men died, the woman was taken to the intensive care unit with serious, sometimes life-threatening injuries and survived.

According to the information, she still suffers from massive physical and mental impairments today.

According to the public prosecutor, the accused, who has been in custody since March 2021, has been conspicuous several times for road traffic offences.

He had to take part in a medical-psychological examination four times.

He also has a criminal record for forgery.

The act caused shock in Frankfurt, vigils were held and candles were set up at the scene of the accident.

An initiative called for a speed limit for the section of road.