There is another judgment in the case of an illegal car race through the streets of Jelenia Góra, as a result of which two people died. As Radio Wrocław reports:

The Wrocław Court of Appeal reduced the sentence for Łukasz O., charged with fatally striking two people with a car during an illegal street race in Jelenia Góra in 2018, from 8 to 7 years.

The second perpetrator, Oskar L., received a sentence of 1.5 years in prison. (That is, the same as previously.) The appellate court’s October ruling is final.

The outlet adds:

The prosecutor wanted the men convicted of participating in murder. Judge Jarosław Mazurek found that there were no legal grounds for such an aggravation.

Let us recall. In October 2019, we reported that the Jelenia Góra District Prosecutor’s Office had filed an indictment with the local Regional Court against two men who, on October 27, 2018, in the evening, caused the fatal collision with two pedestrians while taking part in a street race.

Investigators reported at the time:

The drivers of passenger cars entered an illegal race through the streets of Jelenia Góra, travelling—according to an expert’s opinion—at speeds of 160 to 180 kilometres per hour, heading from the city centre towards Wrocław.

Along the way, the drivers passed three intersections and six pedestrian crossings, exceeding the speed limit by more than 100 kilometres per hour.

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

The driver of a Seat, who at that moment was overtaking the other race participant by several metres, struck the victims while entering the pedestrian crossing. They died at the scene.

The Seat driver turned out to be Łukasz O.; Oskar L. was behind the wheel of the Volkswagen.

The prosecution then accused both drivers of—acting jointly and in agreement, and “taking part in an illegal car race, foreseeing the possibility of depriving the victims of life and accepting that”—committing murder with conditional intent. In addition, their conduct allegedly created a direct danger of a disaster in land traffic.

Neither O. nor L. pleaded guilty.

At that time, the Jelenia Góra Regional Prosecutor’s Office stated:

The defendants had not previously been convicted of crimes, but they had committed road offences, including speeding and causing collisions.

A detailed investigation was conducted in the case, including the questioning of numerous witnesses and inspections of the scene and vehicles. Surveillance recordings were secured, and numerous expert opinions were obtained, including in the fields of forensic medicine, road-accident reconstruction, vehicle engineering and accident biomechanics. A procedural experiment was also conducted at the scene.

Both vehicles involved in the incident underwent detailed examinations, as a result of which experts found, among other things, that the engine-control-unit parameters had been modified in a similar way in both vehicles, significantly increasing their power and, consequently, their acceleration and speed.

According to the experts, without simultaneously redesigning and adapting the remaining components, including the braking system and wheels, such vehicles became dangerous. Other modifications were also found in the cars.

The investigation also established that both defendants had attended meetings organized by an informal group of motoring enthusiasts in Jelenia Góra. A recording depicting another dangerous car journey was found, among other things, on a mobile phone seized from one of them.

The investigation found that neither the external conditions nor the victims’ behaviour contributed in any way to the incident, and that the defendants made no manoeuvres intended to avoid it.

However, in May last year we reported that the court had found O. and L. guilty of the acts with which they were charged. The former was sentenced to 8 years in prison, while the latter received 1.5 years behind bars. The prosecutor had sought 25 years’ imprisonment for both defendants.

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