Police officer involved in deadly March crash outside Parliament charged with negligent manslaughter
A police officer involved in the death of a 23-year-old motorcyclist outside Parliament in Athens in March was charged with negligent manslaughter on Friday after an investigation concluded that his actions inadvertently caused the crash that killed the young man.
The unnamed police officer was driving an MP’s official car when he pulled into Parliament’s Vassilissis Sofias Avenue side entrance, across the flow of northbound traffic from Syntagma Square. The 23-year-old motorcyclist was driving up Vassilissis Sofias, with a green light, at that moment, slamming into the car’s rear.
The impact threw the motorcyclist onto the asphalt, causing deadly injuries to his brain, even though he was wearing a helmet. He died shortly after in hospital.
According to the findings of the investigation, the police officer should not have been using that particular entrance at the time as he was not driving the MP – Dora Bakoyannis, a former New Democracy minster and also the prime minister’s sister – to Parliament and should also have waited for a signal from the police officer assigned to regulate the flow of traffic at that spot.
