The LPP driver missed the student while turning right. Photo: Luka Cjuha
The police brought criminal charges against the LPP driver who ran over a minor pedestrian
The police have completed the investigation into the tragic accident on Kopitarjeva in which a minor student died. They confirmed to us that they filed criminal charges, which means that they found that the bus driver caused the accident.
“In the context of the protection of personal data, we can only confirm that this week we filed a criminal complaint with the competent district prosecutor’s office in Ljubljana on suspicion of the criminal offense of causing a traffic accident due to negligence,” the police department confirmed to us that the investigation into the tragic accident in Kopitarjeva street in Ljubljana, where the driver of the LPP bus ran over a minor pedestrian, confirmed the suspicion of a criminal offense.
Lying under the wheels of the bus
On Friday, May 15, at approximately 2:30 p.m., passersby at the intersection of Poljanska cesta and Kopitarjeva street were shocked by a horrific scene. The driver of city bus number 20, who was driving along Poljanska and turning right onto Kopitarjeva, hit and ran over a student of the nearby Poljanska high school at the pedestrian crossing. As witnesses told us, the girl crossed the pedestrian crossing with a green light, and the bus driver also had a green light.
“We are shocked, because it could also be bears,” said two American tourists from Washington, who crossed Kopitarjevo Street at the intersection with Poljanska Cesta at the same time as the unfortunate girl who died under the wheels of the bus, shortly after the tragic traffic accident that took the life of a young girl. As they confided in us, they crossed the road from the direction of the city center towards Poljane, and the girl in the opposite direction. They said that the traffic light was green for both pedestrians and cars, so the pedestrian crossed the road correctly, and the bus turned right even at the green light. But the bus driver apparently overlooked the young pedestrian. According to the American women, he drove straight into the pedestrian, hit her with the right part of the bus and ran over. “Maybe he slowed down a bit, but I don’t know if he braked,” one of them told us. Both of them also gave a statement to the Slovenian police, and when we spoke to them, they were still very shaken and crying.
The accident shook everyone, including the driver
In the days after the tragedy, the LPP and the Ljubljana municipality also explained that it was an extremely unfortunate event, which also deeply shook their driver. As the witness told us, the driver got out of the bus after the accident and screamed in terror.
The police examined the bus for a long time at the scene of the accident, and its undercarriage, under which the young girl died, was covered. Firefighters freed the body of the young girl from under the bus only after about two hours.
“According to the information collected so far, the traffic accident occurred when a pedestrian crossed the road at a pedestrian crossing, and then a 48-year-old bus driver collided with her. The pedestrian suffered such severe injuries in the accident that she died on the spot,” the police later announced, adding that they tested the driver with a breathalyzer, which showed that he was driving completely sober.
Today, they are not revealing the details of their findings, but after more than three weeks of investigation, they apparently came to the conclusion that the accident was caused by the bus driver. Otherwise, they would not have filed a criminal complaint, but only a report to the Ljubljana Prosecutor’s Office. The Ljubljana prosecutor’s office will now have to decide whether to prosecute the accused driver, and they can also dismiss the complaint or ask the police to supplement it.
Causing a fatal traffic accident due to negligence is punishable by up to eight years in prison and a ban on driving motor vehicles.
