20-year-old charged • Three young people died • Driving upwards of 160 kilometers per hour – on 70-lane road
The Tuesday night last May is like many others. The five young people meet to drive together in the areas around Kimstad outside Norrköping.
The motorcycle-interested group of friends – four guys and a girl – do it because “they just want to go out and ride a bit” and “kill time”.
Behind the wheel sits a 20-year-old man who describes himself as “quite good at driving”.
They listen to music and talk. The speed is high – despite the fact that they are traveling on a 70-lane road.
Loses control in a minor curve
In a group chat on Snapchat, one of the passengers sends a picture from inside the car. There, one of the other passengers is described as “terrified”.
Just minutes later, the tragedy is a fact.
In a minor curve, the 20-year-old loses control of the vehicle, which first collides with a garbage can and then overturns and lands on the roof.
The young people in the front seat manage to get out and alert both SOS and passers-by.
Several meters into the forest lies the car, deformed and later burnt out.
– There was something incredibly burning, so you didn’t dare go up to the car, says a witness from the scene.
“Showed obvious indifference to the lives of other people”
A few hours later, the extent of the accident is clear when the police announce that three people – two boys and a girl – in their early teens have died after the crash.
The 20-year-old and another teenage boy manage with relatively minor injuries.
During Friday, the 20-year-old was charged on suspicion of causing the death of another and gross negligence in traffic. The prosecutor believes that the crime should be assessed as serious when “the driver acted with gross negligence and showed obvious indifference to the lives of other people”.
In questioning, the 20-year-old, who admits gross negligence, claims that the car cannot possibly drive over 120 kilometers per hour due to a broken EGR valve. But at the same time, a computer simulation, based on images, tire tracks and information from the preliminary investigation, shows that the car was driven at 160 kilometers per hour.
The evidence against the suspect also includes videos from his mobile phone that show him driving at speeds between 140 and 200 kilometers per hour. The other survivor of the crash has testified how the 20-year-old has a habit of speeding.
– Once he drove at 200 kilometers an hour, I remember, he says in questioning.
“An unimaginable situation”
The five young people were all from the same area in Östergötland, the small town of Skärblacka, which was greatly affected by the incident.
A few weeks after the accident, a memorial procession was organized in memory of the lost friends.
– It is a completely unimaginable situation, said Carita Johansson, principal at Mosstorpskolan in Skärblacka to SVT.