Absent driver delays trial over alcohol-related crash

A trial over a serious alcohol-related crash was postponed until November after the defendant failed to appear at Klagenfurt Regional Court, ORF reported. The Carinthian man is charged with causing bodily injury through negligence while intoxicated.

According to the indictment, he was driving in the Wolfsberg district last May with a blood alcohol level of 1.8 per mille when his car collided head-on with another vehicle. The two people in the other car and the defendant were seriously injured.

If the man fails to attend the November hearing, police will bring him to court, ORF reported.

Police said they had stopped 54 drivers with blood alcohol levels above 0.8 per mille during targeted checks over the past five weeks. All had their driving licences taken away.

Austria’s legal alcohol limit for drivers is 0.5 per mille, but penalties can also apply below that level if someone is involved in a crash or is not fit to drive. ÖAMTC legal expert Patrick Boschitz said that fatigue combined with alcohol can quickly make a person unable to drive safely. The same may apply when alcohol is combined with medication.

Boschitz said drivers may not refuse a breath test. Anyone who does is automatically treated as having a blood alcohol level of 1.6 per mille.