A German truck driver suspected of having knocked down and caused the death of former Italian cycling champion Davide Rebellin in November 2022 in northern Italy has been arrested in Germany, the Italian prosecutor’s office said on Saturday (June 17).
Employee of a company in Recke, near Münster (north), the man had struck Davide Rebellin, Olympic vice-champion of road cycling in Beijing in 2008, on November 30, 2022 in the town of Montebello Vicentino, in Veneto ( northeast). The heavyweight had not stopped and Davide Rebellin, 51, died instantly.
Prosecuted for manslaughter and failure to assist a person in danger
The driver was arrested last Thursday and placed in pre-trial detention in Münster awaiting the decision of the German courts on his surrender to the Italian authorities. He is being prosecuted for manslaughter and failure to assist a person in danger, the prosecution said in a statement.
” Rebellin’s death is attributable exclusively to a combination of shortcomings on the part of the [suspect] in the driving of his truck in the moments preceding the impact »wrote the magistrate in charge of the preliminary investigation in his conclusions.
Investigators identified the driver thanks to surveillance cameras installed near the scene of the accident. Investigations have established that the presumed contact points of the bicycle and the victim on the truck were cleaned with a ” concentrated detergent ».
Winner of classics seven times in his career (Liège-Bastogne-Liège, three times the Flèche Wallonne, the Amstel Gold Race, the Clasica San Sebastian and the Zurich Championship), including a resounding hat-trick in the Ardennes in 2004, Davide Rebellin was one of the best one-day racing specialists of his generation. He had remained on the professional circuit and continued to run big races in the mid-2010s, at the age of 45.
With AFP