Marek Z. was sentenced to eight years in prison. The man also permanently lost his driving licence and will have to pay PLN 5,000 in compensation to each of the four people closest to the victim.
The convicted man is a 32-year-old from Legnica. After midnight on 3 August, he drove a Nissan Almera while drunk (2.1‰ alcohol in his system) with an acquaintance from Kunice to Legnica. He was nervous and drove rather recklessly. Before the pedestrian crossing by the bridge on Wrocławska Street, instead of stopping as another driver had done, he drove around the car and onto the crossing, where the victim was walking with his sister and mother. The women managed to jump out of the way. The 29-year-old man was hit.
The victim suffered severe injuries, including open fractures of both legs and the right forearm, maxillofacial trauma, as well as a collapsed lung and liver damage. On 31 August, the young man died in hospital.
It was established that the accused, Marek Z., had previously been convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol, and got behind the wheel while a two-year driving ban was in force.
Due to concerns that he might obstruct the proceedings and go into hiding from law enforcement, as well as the severe sentence he faced, the suspect was temporarily detained at the prosecutor’s request. Marek Z. was charged with:
driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol despite a previous conviction for such an offence
causing a road accident under the influence of alcohol, which resulted in the victim’s death as a consequence of serious bodily injury.
Marek Z. confessed to committing the offence both during the preparatory proceedings and before the court. He expressed remorse and deeply regretted what he had done. The offences with which he was charged carried a sentence of between nine months and 12 years in prison, permanent loss of his driving licence and substantial compensation payments to the victim’s closest relatives.
On 19 January, a guilty verdict was delivered in the case, sentencing Marek Z. to eight years in prison. He will also have to pay PLN 5,000 in compensation to each of the four closest relatives of the victim—his parents and siblings. He will also permanently lose the right to drive vehicles.
Because the court found that the convicted man’s conduct constituted only one offence—causing a road accident under the influence of alcohol that resulted in the victim’s death—and treated the first of the offences described as an earlier act subsumed into the punishment, the prosecutor requested a written justification of the verdict in order to review the court’s reasoning and decide whether there were grounds for filing an appeal. The verdict is therefore not final.
Liliana Łukasiewicz, press spokesperson for the Legnica District Prosecutor’s Office/ii