They raced through the city. They killed two pedestrians on a crosswalk

As established during the proceedings, on Saturday evening, after 11 p.m., the drivers of two vehicles organized an illegal race through the streets of Jelenia Góra. The perpetrators were traveling from the direction of the city center toward Wrocław.

While racing, they significantly exceeded the administratively permitted speed. According to the preliminary opinion of a road-traffic expert, as they approached one of the pedestrian crossings, both cars were traveling at no less than 135 km/h, in a place where the speed limit was 50 km/h.

When the perpetrators were approaching the crossing, two people were on it: a 47-year-old woman and a 57-year-old man. They were crossing the road properly, using a marked and illuminated pedestrian crossing.

As the driver of a Seat entered the pedestrian crossing, he struck the victims with the vehicle he was driving. The victims died at the scene. Both vehicles involved in the race stopped beyond the pedestrian crossing.

Shortly after the incident, police officers arrested the 25-year-old driver of the Seat, Łukasz O., the 21-year-old driver of the second car, a Volkswagen, Oskar L., and the 20-year-old passenger of that vehicle.

At the scene, the prosecutor conducted an inspection with the participation of a road-traffic expert. Surveillance recordings from the area around the scene were also secured. An autopsy of the victims was conducted, and a preliminary opinion from a forensic-medicine expert was obtained concerning the type and mechanism of the victims’ injuries.

On October 29, both men were brought to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Jelenia Góra.

Łukasz O. and Oskar L. were charged. Both men could face even life imprisonment.

The suspects did not admit to committing the crimes of which they were accused and refused to provide explanations. (The detained 20-year-old passenger of the Volkswagen was questioned as a witness and released after the procedural activities involving him had been completed.)

The District Prosecutor’s Office in Jelenia Góra submitted an application to the local District Court for the suspects to be placed in pretrial detention for three months from the date of their arrest.

The court granted the investigators’ application. We will return to the subject.