WILLEMSTAD — The Public Prosecutor decided today to lodge an appeal against the decision of the examining magistrate to release Nelson d.S.d.S., who’s responsible for three traffic fatalities.

 

Spokesperson Norman Serphos confirmed that three judges will handle the request in camera next week.The Public Prosecutor decided to appeal to a higher court following the society’s shocked response to his release. “There’s a question of a seriously shocked legal order. Most people don’t understand why he was released”, Serphos said.

 

The man was released because the reasons mentioned by the Public Prosecutor were insufficient for detention on remand. Now that the request to the examining magistrate for detention was dismissed, no conditions were determined for his release. S. is therefore even allowed to travel if he wishes to do so.

 

Although S. has been released he will be prosecuted for (three times) culpable homicide. Three joggers were killed almost immediately with that fatal accident on EEG-weg. He will be served a summons later on to appear before the judge. A date hasn’t been fixed yet.

 

The cause of the fatal accident is entirely clear yet. In the interest of the investigation the authorities can’t say much about the results already known. For instance, at the moment it’s impossible to make the results of the (brake) tests public, police spokesperson Reginald Huggins explained earlier. Nevertheless, it’s clear that the driver was not under the influence of drink. S. admitted to have been drinking though. However, the test from the laboratory showed his blood alcohol level hadn’t exceeded the legal alcohol permillage limit. Moreover, his blood had contained no traces of drugs.

 

S. is cooperating well with the investigation and gave a clear picture of his actions on the particular day, his lawyer Noraina Pietersz said. According to the driver, he had been very tired that morning. He has two jobs and had had to drop off a colleague at his home. Being tired he fell asleep while driving and lost control over his car. Moreover, he doesn’t have driver’s license. S. actually drives a scooter but the police had taken it away.

 

Pietersz wishes to clarify that S. is in no mood to celebrate his release, on the contrary. He feels very bad about what happened and empathizes with the next-of-kin of the victims.

 

The fatal accident caused considerable commotion and there’s much discussion on the safety of road users. Many recommendations are made on the social network sites about the measures the government is to take to reduce the number of traffic fatalities. For instance, most want more traffic surveillance and measures to protect cyclists.