Far-right leader 3 times over limit in fatal crash

AUSTRIAN far-right leader Joerg Haider was more than three times over the legal alcohol limit when he crashed his car and was killed at the weekend, his party said yesterday.

“It is true that governor Joerg Haider had 1.8g of alcohol in his blood at the time of the accident,” said his successor as head of the Alliance for the Future of Austria, Stefan Petzner

The legal limit in Austria is 0.5g of alcohol per litre of blood.

Haider, 58, was doing more than twice the 70km/h speed limit when he crashed in the early hours of Saturday after leaving a night club in Carinthia province, prosecutors said.

His Volkswagen Phaeton was overtaking when it smashed into a concrete post and a fire hydrant before flipping over, flattening the vehicle. The controversial politician died on his way to hospital after suffering severe head, chest and spinal injuries.

Haider was leaving Klagenfurt to return to his home in Baerental, south of the city, where he was due to celebrate his mother’s 90th birthday.

Following the new revelations, Petzner called on the media “to stop investigating the accident” and respect the private life of the outspoken far-right leader.

A procession and memorial service will be held on Saturday in Klagenfurt to commemorate Haider’s life.

In 1999, Haider received 27% of the vote in national elections as leader of the Freedom Party. The party’s subsequent inclusion in the government led to months of European Union sanctions over Haider’s statements, which were seen as anti-Semitic or sympathetic to Adolf Hitler’s labour policies. Over the summer, he staged a comeback in national politics.