A trailer truck thundered down a residential street in Fürth, hitting cars, damaging houses and finally bursting into flames. people get hurt. The damage is immense. Later it turns out that the driver was very drunk.

In court, the 51-year-old admitted the allegations in the matter, as he had his defense attorney explain. According to his own statements, he could not remember large parts of the almost 180-meter-long devastation.

swath of desolation

The truck driver's drunk driving on the evening of February 8 in the city near Nuremberg made headlines nationwide. The articulated lorry loaded with 26-ton steel parts had cut a path of destruction through the residential street.

According to the investigation, the driver ran a red light without braking and crashed into a car at the intersection. The driver was injured. According to the indictment, the truck driver then thundered down a residential street at a speed of 70, rammed several parked cars and partially pushed them into the facades of the houses. A pedestrian had to save himself by jumping over a bonnet.

Truck goes up in flames

Eventually, the semi-trailer truck became wedged with several vehicles and came to a stop in front of an apartment building. The truck caught fire and spread to an apartment building. Several residents had to use ladders to get to safety over a wall in the backyard because the front door was locked due to the fire. A resident freed the truck driver from the driver's cab.

Five injured, more than 30 demolished cars, damaged houses and total damage of around 800,000 euros - according to the public prosecutor's office, these were the consequences of the devastating drive. Prosecutor Danny Schaller said the accused could and should have recognized his unfitness to drive due to his alcohol consumption. Among other things, he accuses the 51-year-old of endangering road traffic, negligent bodily harm and negligent arson. An expert had previously ruled out technical defects on the semitrailer as the cause of the accident. The accused has been in custody since February.

In court, he admitted to having made mistakes and apologized to the victims. "He would do anything to undo it," said his defender Mona Abdel Hamid. Her client drank vodka on the afternoon of February 8 - out of grief over his wife's cancer. He had planned to spend the night in Fürth. But then he had to clear the parking space and only wanted to drive to the next parking lot. He had noticed that he was under the influence of alcohol, but thought it would be fine, the defendant had the lawyer explain.

The trailer truck drove 6.5 kilometers before, according to the indictment, the first accident occurred at the intersection. A witness reported in court how he had seen that he had previously driven in wavy lines. Defense attorney Abdel Hamid said her client heard a bang but drove on. "From then on his memories are blurred or gone."

"I really can't remember"

The driver of the car that the trailer truck hit at the intersection described in court how lights suddenly came towards her from the left. Then she was thrown to the side and came to a halt in front of a house wall. She suffered bruises and was in pain for many weeks, the pensioner said. To this day she cannot understand why the driver did not stop after the collision. "I've always asked myself that." The defendant replied: "I really don't remember."

According to a court spokesman, numerous witnesses were to testify during the first day of the trial, including the injured. In the afternoon, an expert was also to give an assessment of the extent to which the accused was culpable because of his severe drunkenness at the time of the crime. According to the court spokesman, on the second day of the trial on Monday next week, the focus should be on the damage.