Filip Turek's Prague crash: why he won't face criminal charges

The district prosecutor's office in Prague 2 says that in July, Motoristé MP Filip Turek met almost every element of a criminal offence — causing bodily harm through negligence — in a crash at I. P. Pavlova Square in Prague. No criminal case was opened against him, however, because the injured driver of a hospital car did not suffer serious injuries.

Last week police said Turek was suspected only of an administrative offence and handed the case to the Prague 2 municipal district office to decide on a possible fine. According to the prosecutor, though, the MP fulfilled almost all the elements of the offence.

New details of the investigation were released by supervising state prosecutor Kamil Švec. “According to the forensic expert's findings, the second driver's injuries were not serious enough to count as bodily harm, so this cannot be treated as a criminal offence of negligence,” wrote Tomáš Svoboda, the Prague 2 district prosecutor. According to him, all the other elements of the offence were met — above all, the breach of an important duty under the Road Traffic Act that caused the crash.

Filip Turek himself has not yet commented on the situation: he did not answer calls and did not respond to questions.

How the crash happened

According to footage from the scene, just before the collision Turek was overtaking a line of cars in the turning lane. At that moment a hospital vehicle, crossing the intersection, was sounding its horn. Turek was the only one who drove onto the intersection, and he hit the rear of the passing car.

The impact sent the hospital vehicle flying into the air, and as it flew out of control it missed a group of pedestrians waiting at the crossing by just a few metres before landing on its roof. According to the prosecutor, Turek endangered seven people.

What police found about the speed

Police concluded that Turek entered the intersection at far too high a speed. “The speed at which he entered the intersection, where he did not have proper visibility, appears inadequate — he clearly could not stop the car within the distance he could see,” the investigator wrote in a document that the Prague 2 prosecutor's office published on its official board.

“It is therefore clearly suspected that he did not exercise the care necessary to avoid endangering road traffic safety,” the police officer added. According to footage from car cameras, Turek entered the intersection specifically via the turning lane. “If he intended to continue straight ahead, which appears likely, then he certainly failed to comply with the requirements of the road signs,” the investigator noted.

The injured driver's injuries

Doctors diagnosed the hospital car's driver with injuries to the head, left elbow, shoulder and knee. According to the forensic expert's findings, the usual recovery time for such injuries is one to three weeks.

“The restrictions on the injured man's normal life were completely minimal,” the document states. “These were mainly minor, temporary injuries of a superficial and soft-tissue nature. Any longer-lasting or more pronounced subjective complaints should be attributed primarily to an old injury to the left ribs, which may have been painfully re-aggravated by the crash,” it adds.

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz