Driver from Călărași sentenced to 12 and a half years after hitting police car in Bucharest
A 34-year-old man from Dragalina has been sentenced by Bucharest Court for assault in the form of attempted murder and driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
Sentenced to 12 years and six months following chaotic pursuit through Capital streets
Bucharest Court has sentenced a 34-year-old driver from Dragalina, Călărași County, to 12 years and six months in prison after he drove at speed into a police car and injured two officers, ProTV News reports.
The incident occurred in February 2023, shortly before midnight, and was captured by a surveillance camera. Before the impact, the man had driven erratically for more than a quarter of an hour through Bucharest's streets, refusing to stop at signals from Traffic Police units.
Investigators reconstructed the route travelled from the moment the driver was noticed in traffic on a boulevard in sector 3. He drove at an average speed of 95 kilometres per hour, running through six red traffic lights over a distance of approximately seven kilometres, until reaching Colentina Bridge. Prosecutors from the Capital's Prosecutor's Office established that the man was both intoxicated and under the influence of a psychoactive substance.
"The defendant drove, at night, under the dual influence of alcohol and a psychoactive substance, at an average speed almost double the legal limit, over a period of more than a quarter of an hour, repeatedly and seriously breaking traffic rules, running red lights on six occasions," the court's ruling stated.
At trial, the defendant denied the charges, claiming he was travelling at approximately 50–60 km/h at the moments preceding the impact, that he had consumed only four mouthfuls of alcohol and that he had not consumed any psychoactive substance. He also contested the statements of witnesses and experts.
The judge found him guilty of assault in the form of attempted murder and of driving under the influence of alcohol and prohibited substances. In addition to the prison sentence, the vehicle used in the accident will be confiscated or he will have to pay its equivalent value, estimated at €3,000.
The two police officers injured constituted themselves as civil parties in the proceedings. The driver will have to pay them moral damages worth over one hundred thousand euros.
Before trial, the man had been held by prosecutors, then placed in preventive detention and subsequently placed under house arrest. Neither he nor his lawyer wished to comment on the sentence, which may be appealed to Bucharest Court of Appeal.
Source: Știrile ProTV