By his will Council of Misdemeanors Thessalonikis, the 27-year-old driver of the car that dragged and abandoned a 21-year-old student in the center of Thessaloniki was referred to the Three-member Court of Criminal Appeals.

Accused of dangerous driving which resulted in death, for leaving the scene of an accident and for driving without a license.

With the same will the 20-year-old passenger was released of the vehicle from the charges of aiding and abetting dangerous driving and desertion as the judges determined that there was insufficient evidence of guilt against her.

They accepted that she should not be charged because, due to her young age and critical condition, she was unable to react.

The incident happened around 1.15 am on November 22, 2022, at the height of Kamara. The car driven by the 27-year-old was moving on Egnatia street, heading from east to west. The road surface was dry, the artificial lighting was sufficient and the vehicular traffic was sparse in contrast to the pedestrian traffic that was dense, as stated in the will.

The car was “teased”.

The defendant did not have a driver’s license and was not the owner of the disputed vehicle, which showed deviations from the specifications set by the manufacturer, having undergone conversions in order to multiply the horsepower, especially to increase its performance.

From the technical expertise it emerged that it constituted a technically unsafe and particularly dangerous vehicle. It developed an excessive speed that reached 104 km/h while the permitted limit is 50 km/h provided for a residential area. When the driver noticed the movement of the student on foot, he braked abruptly and the car began to “crawl” on the road, skidding to the left. He then crashed into a parked car.

“In order not to be noticed that he was involved in a traffic accident in which another person was seriously injured, the first defendant reversed, again injuring the pedestrian who was lying on the roadway and fled at speed, leaving the scene of the accident” is written in will while then abandoning the vehicle on the ring road and removing the license plates.

21 year old Emma she was transported by EKAV ambulance to the “Papageorgiou” hospital where she died on November 27, 2022. That is, after five days of hospitalization in the Intensive Care Unit, she breathed her last and drowned in the mourning of her loved ones.

“The passenger bears no responsibility”

The Council of Criminal Courts of Thessaloniki judged that there are sufficient indications of guilt for the driver and referred him to be tried at the Three-member Criminal Appeal Court of Thessaloniki.

On the contrary, for the co-driver – the second defendant, she ruled that there were insufficient indications of guilt for complicity in dangerous driving resulting in death.

“The second defendant bears no responsibility for the traffic accident in question. In addition, he was not riding as a passenger in a vehicle whose movement – by extension – he was unable to determine. Stopping the vehicle (in order for its occupants to offer their help to the victim) was the sole decision of the driver who not only did not do the right thing but instead left the scene of the accident, developing a high speed and finally abandoning it by the same injured pedestrian” is written in the will of the SPTH.

In addition, the following are highlighted: The above is also confirmed by the preliminary investigation of the first defendant who noted that: “For my passenger {…} I want to say that after the unfortunate incident she remained in the vehicle until I got her off. I even told her that I will do the legal thing and so I reassured her that I will deal with the issue.”

His words are identical to the pre-investigation testimony of the girl who pointed out that: “We went up to Iasonidou Street and entered something narrow. Then I regained consciousness and while the vehicle was moving, I tried to get out, shouting for him to stop. He tried to calm me down and told me that he would stop soon. We reached the forest of Sheikh Su and stopped. I got out of the car and kept asking him to leave. He reassured me by telling me that he will find out if the girl is okay and then he will do what is necessary and what the law dictates.”

Regarding the council’s rationale for the 20-year-old’s dismissal, the following is stated:

“Given the young age of the accused and the self-evident inability to manage critical situations, the lack – at the critical time – of the possibility of choosing the right one (which she was reasonably unaware of, in the legal sense of the term, rather than wishing to act humanely and according to moral duty), of the shock she suffered from the violence of the event that unfolded quite suddenly in front of her, and above all of her ultimately (albeit delayed) voluntary and spontaneous attendance at the police authorities with the unquestionable purpose of assisting in their work, should not to be charged against her…”.