The court reduced the sentence of the driver who was responsible for the death of the police officer

Prague – The Prague High Court today sentenced the driver Jitka Rudovičová to ten years in prison, who caused an accident in which a policeman died and two others were injured. He reduced her non-judicial sentence by three years. He found her guilty of the crime of public endangerment. A woman drove drunk in Prague at a speed of 150 kilometers and crashed into a police car.

“This is an immense tragedy,” declared the president of the senate, Michaela Pařízková. According to her, however, the court had to get rid of an emotional view of the matter and assess the act strictly objectively. Rudovičová committed the crime for the first time, showed remorse and partially compensated for the damage herself. Therefore, according to the judge, there was no need to impose a sentence in the upper half of the criminal rate. The court also relied on earlier verdicts in similar cases. “From those it emerged that the punishment was really disproportionately severe,” said Pařízková.

“I would like to turn back time, but I can’t. I will regret it until the day I die,” said Rudovičová in court today. Her defense attorney said in the appeal that the trial court did not judge her actions correctly. The woman did not commit the crime intentionally, and therefore should not be sentenced for public endangerment. However, the appeals panel did not agree with this.

After the crime, the woman apologized to all the convicts in a letter. However, their lawyer scolded her today for not coming to face them at the trial and apologize to them in person. Rudovičová explained that she acted on the advice of a doctor and a lawyer. She was not in a good mental state.

In July 2020, Rudovičová got behind the wheel of her Mercedes after getting drunk after an argument with her husband. First, she ran into one of the parked cars in Vyšehrad. She then took to the street on May 5 and narrowly missed several vehicles at a speed of over 150 kilometers per hour. In the end, she ran into the service car of the Moravian-Silesian policemen who were returning home from the capital.

A thirty-one-year-old policeman who was sitting in the back seat died in the collision. Two other crew members – a man and a woman – ended up in hospital. Rudovičová breathed over two per thousand after the accident. According to experts, there were also traces of cocaine in her body.

The policeman who died in the accident was shortly before his wedding. In memoriam he was promoted to the rank of ensign. The family of the deceased and his injured colleagues are demanding a total of roughly three million crowns from Rudovičová as compensation. The woman has already paid them part of the money, she has also paid the claims of the insurance companies. Another part of the compensation was awarded to the applicants without jurisdiction by the court.

The public prosecutor’s office originally charged Rudovičová with negligent homicide, negligent grievous bodily harm and endangerment under the influence of a drug, for which she would face a maximum of eight years in prison. However, the district court came to the conclusion based on an expert opinion that the woman’s behavior could be qualified more strictly – as a general threat with a sentence of eight to 15 years. Therefore, the city court took over the case.

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