Eppendorf Death Driver:Where did the guilt begin?

In the spring of 2011, an epileptic drove into a group of people in Hamburg-Eppendorf. Four of them die, including Dietmar Mues and Günter Amendt. Hamburg is in shock. Was the man even allowed to drive?

by Stefanie Grossmann

It is March 12, 2011, a spring-like Saturday in Hamburg. At a busy intersection in the fashionable district of Eppendorf, shortly before 5 p.m., 38-year-old Caesar S. lost control of his Fiat Punto due to a seizure. The vehicle raced past a red traffic light on the Eppendorfer Landstrasse at 100 kilometers per hour, hit a car, rolled over and turned several times. Finally, it crashes into a group of people waiting on the sidewalk for the traffic light to turn green. It is a momentous accident:four people die. At least three others are injured, including the person who caused the accident. It's a black day for the people of Eppendorf.

Among the victims are Dietmar Mues and Günter Amendt

An overturned car wreck, debris lying around, countless ambulances - and emergency doctors resuscitating the accident victims:the terrible pictures of the Eppendorf accident shook the whole of Hamburg at the time, also because the victims are prominent. At the time of the accident, the actor Dietmar Mues was standing at the intersection with his wife Sibylle and a tandem. Many know him from his roles in "Tatort" and in "Bella Block", for several years he was part of the ensemble of the Hamburger Schauspielhaus. The accident driver kills both of them, as does the well-known social scientist Günter Amendt and the artist Angela Kurrer, stepmother of the actor Dominic Raacke. Actor Peter Striebeck and his wife Ulla are in the rammed car and are slightly injured in the impact.

The Mues couple leaves behind three sons:Wanja, Jona and Woody

The sympathy among Hamburg's citizens is great:the day after the accident, they leave flowers at the scene. And they leave personal messages:"The last curtain has fallen. Why?" is written on a yellow note to the Mues couple. Her sons Wanja, Jona and Woody also remain behind, having to live with the loss of both parents.

Three weeks after the accident, several hundred people say goodbye to Dietmar and Sibylle Mues at a funeral service in the Ohlsdorf cemetery. In an interview with NDR, Woody Mues, who was 20 at the time of the accident, remembers that his brother Wanja, who is 17 years older, took a lot into his own hands. But they also had many friends of their parents who would take care of organization and bureaucracy for them. "It was very fortunate because we were able to take the time to mourn," Woody Mues continued.

Accident driver keeps having seizures at the wheel

While the relatives mourn, more and more details about the accident driver come to the public. During the accident he was drugged and tested positive for the active ingredient in cannabis, THC. And it's not the first serious crash that Caesar S. causes. Before the Eppendorf accident, there should have been three more - also in connection with seizures. After the third accident, Caesar S. loses his driver's license in 2008, but he sues against the withdrawal. With success:in 2009 he got his driving license back. An epileptic seizure at the wheel was not foreseeable for him, the Kiel district court said at the time. In the same year, however, his employer at the time forbade him from driving a company car. The insurance no longer wants to be liable for any damage. Nevertheless, Caesar S. continued to drive until his employer put the driving ban in writing in 2010.

As an epileptic, was Caesar S. even allowed to drive a car?

Are epileptics even allowed to get behind the wheel of a car? At the time, this question occupied not only the outraged Hamburg public, but also the judiciary. If you suffer from epilepsy and have suffered at least two spontaneous seizures, you must be seizure-free for at least a year in order to be able to drive a car privately. Public transport, for example, is excluded. If an epileptic takes various medications over several years in order not to have seizures, they must have been free of seizures for two years. The Federal Highway Research Institute lays down these basic rules relating to fitness to drive in the case of epilepsy. Irrespective of this, the fact is:Caesar S. had a valid driver's license - with judicial approval.

The judges therefore have to deal with sensitive legal issues with a view to a trial. Even if the public prosecutor considers the driver of the accident to be innocent because of the seizure at the moment of the crash, the accusation remains that he was driving the car knowing about the illness and the associated risk. "We are shifting the accusation to the run-up to the fatal accident," explains senior public prosecutor Wilhelm Möller to "Welt". The possible penalty could be imprisonment for up to five years. However, an acquittal is also within the realm of possibility.

Relatives consider it important to clarify who is at fault

A good year after the accident, on March 26, 2012, proceedings against Caesar S. before the Hamburg district court began for four cases of negligent homicide, negligent bodily harm and intentional endangerment of road traffic. Ten days of hearings are scheduled before the big criminal court, four experts and 28 witnesses are invited. An army of journalists accompanies the start of the process.

Wanja, Jona and Woody Mues appear in court as joint plaintiffs. Wanja Mues told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper in November 2011 that a trial that clarifies the "death driver's" guilt is important to her. The relatives are not concerned with the amount of the sentence. Rather, a statement of guilt would help "to move forward in the grief and hopefully at some point find a point where the matter is closed."

"He should never have gotten behind the wheel"

The public prosecutor accuses the accused of losing control of his vehicle as a result of an acute epileptic event and causing a traffic accident that killed four people and injured three people. The litigation assumes that the accused is aware of his illness. Because of the epileptic seizure and the associated loss of control, she does not consider the accused to be responsible under criminal law at the specific time of the accident. But:"He should never have gotten behind the wheel," said senior public prosecutor Wilhelm Möllers. For the court, it is therefore irrelevant that a drug test found the person who caused the accident to be taking the active ingredient cannabis, THC.

Defendant Caesar S. denies being an epileptic

The relatives hope that the accused will see the matter on the first day of the hearing:"That he accepts his guilt and asks for forgiveness," says Wolf Römmig, the lawyer for the joint plaintiffs. But that doesn't happen. During the trial, the accused admitted to having had seizures several times. However, he vehemently denies being an epileptic.

But that refutes the evidence:Various doctors had certified that Caesar S. had epilepsy and had prescribed medication for him since 2005. In the course of the trial, a neurologist and a coroner also appear as experts and also diagnose epilepsy in the accused. On the eighth day of the hearing, Caesar S. turns to the relatives for the first time:"I ask for your forgiveness, but I couldn't forgive myself if I were you." Woody Mues follows almost every day of the trial - for him this is not an excuse, but an insult, he explains to the "Hamburger Abendblatt".

Prison sentence for the Eppendorf "death driver"

In their closing arguments, the public prosecutor's office is asking for a prison sentence of three years and nine months. The defense pleads for acquittal. On June 5, 2012, Caesar S. was finally sentenced to three and a half years in prison without parole. In addition, his driver's license will be revoked for five years. "Unfortunately not forever, if I may put it in my own words," says presiding judge Birgit Woitas. She lacks the legal basis for a harsher judgment. In the verdict, she also speaks of a "high degree of breach of duty, which borders on conditional intent". The accused disregarded warning signs for his epilepsy and even concealed seizures from his doctor. Woody Mues is relieved about the verdict. He hopes that he can now put an end to the "public fuss" and "may think of two people again."

Memorial commemorates the victims of the accident

A memorial service is held at the accident site in Eppendorf three years after the death of the victims. In the presence of the bereaved, a memorial is inaugurated - a bench with a crack running through it. A small commemorative plaque with the names of the victims is attached to it. It is a place to pause in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. For Woody Mues, this memorial has developed into a kind of power place during the difficult time:"I like to stay here and think of our parents," he told NDR at the time. He is happy to see that this place is always busy. It commemorates the loss of four people and shows how fragile life can be.