Bonn pedestrian trial Man in court for crossing street on red light
Bonn · A judge handed down a stiff fine to a pedestrian who caused a traffic accident by crossing the street on a red light.
A50-year-old man found himself in the courtroom after having causedan accident when he walked across the street on a red light.According to the charges, it was 3:30 in the afternoon in BadGodesberg when the man walked across the street even though he hada red light at the pedestrian crossing.
This caused a chainreaction for motorists coming out of the Bad Godesberg tunnel inthe direction towards Heiderhof. A 50-year-old female driver had tobrake suddenly on a green light, and the car behind her crashedinto her car. The driver of the car and her husband told the judgethere was a green light but they noticed the man was walking veryleisurely across the street, and did not look to the right or left.
He appeared to be completely lost in his own thoughts. She brakedand passed by him carefully to his left when she suddenly heard aloud bang on the passenger side. Her husband, a 54-year-oldoff-duty policeman happened to be sitting there and said thepedestrian smashed his sports bag against the passenger side of thecar.
The man then wanted to leave the scene but the off-dutypoliceman and the 23-year-old driver of the car behind themdetained the man until police arrived. The 23-year-old driverconfirmed the explanation given by the couple but the man with thesports bag denied the accusations and said the light was green ashe began crossing the street. He said the car intentionally drovetowards him so he merely tapped his bag against the car. The judgesaid she had no reason to doubt the story of the drivers and shehanded out a 2,400 euro fine to the pedestrian. She reasoned thathe could have been startled by the car if he was lost in histhoughts but he created a very dangerous situation for drivers.(Orig. text: Rita Klein)
