A 31-year-old city bus driver who ran over a 19-year-old girl in Katowice (Silesia Voivodeship) on Saturday morning (31 July) will be brought to the prosecutor’s office on Sunday, where he will give explanations, police said. Until then, the man will remain in police custody.
The accident happened on Saturday (31 July) before 6 AM near a pedestrian crossing near the intersection of Mickiewicza and Stawowa Streets in the very centre of Katowice. Amateur footage available on social media shows the bus driver ramming a group of youths, some of whom were involved in a lane fight. A teenage girl disappears under the wheels of a vehicle that drags her for several dozen meters, while one of the men is pushed by a moving bus.
The 31-year-old driver who was arrested and taken into police custody has not yet been charged.
As the journalists were informed by the spokeswoman of the Katowice police, Assistant Police Commissioner Agnieszka Żyłka, on Saturday late afternoon the questioning of numerous witnesses to the incident was still in progress. Some of them were under the influence of alcohol in the morning, so they will be questioned later or on Sunday; the testimony of individual witnesses is confronted with each other.
Police officers are also analyzing various types of video footage (e.g., from the city surveillance system and cameras of nearby buildings) showing the accident. The culmination of the evidential activities will be Sunday’s bringing of the detained driver to the District Prosecutor’s Office Katowice-Północ, which supervises the proceedings in this case.
Decisions on the content of charges will be made after an analysis of the material collected in this case – police officers do not specify the course of the investigation at the moment. A driver could be liable, for example, for causing a fatal accident. The classification of the act could be different if the investigators found that the perpetrator acted with premeditation.
The 31-year-old driver of PKM Katowice was sober; his blood was drawn to test for drugs. The tests have to be conducted in a certified laboratory, which will take several days.
The footage of the accident available in the media shows a large group of young people – some of them are involved in a fight in the traffic lane of Mickiewicza Street, some are standing on the pavement. An oncoming city bus uses a horn, slows down and stops, but a moment later starts up again. A teenage girl is dragged under the wheels of a vehicle and one of the men is pushed for several metres by a moving bus. The rest of the fighters are running off to the side, the bus is leaving on its way.
THE RECORDING FOR ADULTS ONLY IS AVAILABLE HERE
The 19-year-old was run over by bus line 910, operated – on behalf of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (ZM) – by PKM Katowice. In a special communiqué, ZTM representatives stated that they are “shocked by this incident and strongly condemn such situations”. The management board demanded “urgent explanations” from the Katowice-based carrier and declared “full cooperation with the services”.
The deceased 19-year-old orphaned two young children, according to local and regional media reports.
According to the procedure under the Code of Criminal Procedure, from the arrest of the driver, police officers have 48 hours to gather evidence in the case to present charges.
UPDATE 16:15
The bus driver has been charged with the murder of a 19-year-old woman and will answer for the attempted murder of two other people.
Investigators will request temporary custody of the 31-year-old driver
The 31-year-old driver was sober. His blood was drawn to test for narcotics.
Murder and attempted murder are punishable by up to 25 years in prison or life imprisonment