Austria: Death plunge minibus driver admits partial guilt

The elderly driver of an Austrian minibus involved an accident that killed six British tourists, admitted partial guilt during a court hearing today.

A bus carrying 49, mainly British, tourists crashed 100 feet down an embankment and landed upside down in August last year after veering to avoid colliding with the minibus, which was overtaking another vehicle at a bend on a two-lane road.

Most of the tourists were injured in the accident in the town of Bad Duerrnberg, 140 miles west of Vienna, and six were killed.

Johann Prettenhaler, 70, who drove the minibus, admitted in a Salzburg court today that he had made a dangerous and illegal overtaking manoeuvre, but said that he could not be held responsible for the fatal consequences of the action.

“He argues that the deaths were not foreseeable,” said his lawyer, Dr Franz Gerald Hitzenbichler. “It was not expected that a minibus could cause a large tourist bus to roll off the road.”

Prettenhaler is accused of endangering the public through negligence, a crime that carries a penalty of up to three years in jail.

The defence argues he instead should be held responsible for the lesser crime of negligence leading to bodily harm.

The next hearing in the case will be held within two months, said Dr Hans Rathgeb, a spokesman for the Salzburg District Court. It was unclear when a verdict would be reached.

Lawyer Clive Garner, who is acting for many of the victims of the crash, said he hoped the hearing would bring the victims and the families who had lost loved ones, “a step nearer to understanding exactly what happened“.

The holidaymakers had been on a tour to Berchtesgaden, Germany, organised by London-based operator Inghams.