The detail that spared a driver without a license who killed three women from nine years in prison

An irresponsible driver, who committed a serious road accident near the city of Târgu Neamţ, was harshly convicted in the first instance, but the magistrates of the higher court decided otherwise.

On July 8, 2021, in the town of Oglinzi in Neamț, a collision involving two vehicles resulted in the death of three women and the serious injury of two other people, who were in a taxi. The author, Gabriel Afloarei, a 23-year-old driver at the time, did not have a license and fled from the scene of the tragedy, then explaining that he was in a state of shock.

The trial followed, with the Târgu Neamţ Court pronouncing 9 years of detention. The decision was contested at the Bacău Court of Appeal, and at the beginning of April 2024, the case took another turn. The decision of the German court was annulled, so the defendant will not serve the initially established punishment, and another one will be pronounced, the case being sent for retrial.

The accused received 8 years in prison for manslaughter, 2 years for driving a vehicle without a driver’s license and 1 year for fleeing the scene of the accident. According to the provisions of the Criminal Code, the judges imposed the heaviest penalty, 8 years, which they increased by one third of the sum of the other two, i.e. another year.

After contesting the sentence, the Bacău Court of Appeal found a “illegality in sentencing the defendant to 1 year in prison (under the legal limit – n.ed.) for committing the crime of leaving the scene of the accident without the consent of the police authorities”because article 338 of the Criminal Code stipulates that the punishment is from 2 years to 7 years.

Dishonest attitude and a fake driver’s license

At the hearings, the author stated that, after the collision, he tried to help the taxi driver, but because a lot of people came to the scene, he got scared, ran into a field and fell asleep, as he was in a state of shock, being hit on the head and hands. When he woke up, he called an uncle, and after receiving a message from a policeman, he told where he was, being detained.

During the investigation, it was also discovered that the young man, at the time he committed the tragic accident, was being investigated in a criminal case after he had been detected in traffic, on February 20, 2021, driving a vehicle, although he did not have the right. He presented the police with a driver’s license issued by the authorities of the Republic of Moldova, but the checks established that it was fake.

The research carried out showed that, on July 8, 2021, at around 10.50 am, Gabriel Afloarei was behind the wheel of a Mercedes Benz Sprinter van. At Oglinzi, because he did not keep a sufficient distance from a vehicle in front, in order to avoid bumping into it, he made a left turn, entered the opposite direction, entering into a head-on collision with the taxi.

The judges found that the defendant did not have an honest attitude, “he tried to minimize the seriousness of the act by declaring that he had the intention of going to a pharmacy to buy medicine, but the witness (…) refutes the defense by showing: “He left my home driving the van, saying that he would have work that day to change different parts», it is shown in the reasoning of the court.