Public Prosecutor's Office Is Investigating Zetsche

2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 05:39

The Osnabrück public prosecutor's office is investigating Dieter Zetsche for negligent homicide for formal reasons. According to the investigations so far, the lawyers themselves assume that the allegations will not come true.

After a fatal accident on a car test track in Emsland, the public prosecutor's office is investigating the negligent homicide of the Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche, who was not involved, for formal reasons. “There's an ad. We have to take action, and we have to check that, said the Osnabrück chief prosecutor Alexander Retemeyer on Friday to the dpa news agency. The background is a fatal accident on a test track in Papenburg, in which a 27-year-old engineer died in September 2010. A Daimler intern was behind the wheel.

Intern as a cause of the accident

The public prosecutor said that according to the current state of the investigation, it was "highly doubtful" that the allegations against the company boss would come true. The "Stuttgarter Zeitung" had previously reported on the investigation.

The intern raced into the engineer's car on September 21 at more than 200 kilometers per hour. The Papenburg District Court has now imposed a suspended fine of 1500 euros on the person who caused the accident. The current new complaint against Zetsche was made by the victim's mother.

Investigations against Dieter Zetsche are pure formality

It must now be clarified whether there is any responsibility beyond the driver, said Retemeyer. The driver himself stated in the proceedings that he had not seen the victim and had been instructed before the journey. The chief executive officer is being investigated because in such cases it can only be investigated against natural persons and not against companies.

In a statement, Daimler pointed out that in the trial against the person who caused the accident, both the judge and the public prosecutor's office had explicitly stated that “Daimler, including Dieter Zetsche, is not at fault”. Rather, the sole fault of the driver had been established. The initiation of the preliminary investigation against Zetsche is a pure formality. "We are sure that this process will be closed." (dpa)