Species smothered under grain: trial in January
court
An accident in the summer of 2022 on a farm in Lamprechtshausen (Flachgau), in which a nine-year-old boy died, has now resulted in criminal proceedings – for the child’s father, a farmer and his retired father. It is about the suspicion of negligent homicide.
In this case, charges have now been filed. The court proceedings are scheduled to begin on January 30, 2023 at the District Court of Oberndorf (Flachgau).
Choked under grain while playing
The child had gotten under the grain on a tractor trailer loaded with grain, lost consciousness and died in the hospital.
The nine-year war visited the farm on July 18 and had played with the farmer’s boy, who was a year younger, on the tipping trailer, which was loaded with a layer of grain about 60 centimeters high. The tipper was raised about 45 degrees to allow the grain to be dumped and conveyed via a tube to an auger drive.
Get sucked in while sliding
The two children used the tipped trailer as a slide. The nine-year-old got caught in the suction at the beginning of the pipe. He blocked the outflow of the grain with his back and was subsequently buried by the following grain. When the younger boy noticed the accident, he immediately sounded the alarm.
The farmer dug the child free and recovered it. The emergency doctor resuscitated the boy, who was then flown to the Salzburg University Hospital in a rescue helicopter. The child died there the following night.
Charge: “Death caused by permission to play”
The Salzburg public prosecutor accuses the two defendants of allowing the child to play on the tipping trailer, although according to the operating instructions this is forbidden while the trailer is in operation.
The criminal complaint states specifically that the accused had allowed the nine-year-old “jointly as accomplices as supervisors” to play on the tipping trailer that was in operation while the grain was being unloaded. You would have acted contrary to the provisions of the general safety and accident prevention regulations in the operating instructions for the tipping trailer, “according to which it must be ensured before each start-up that nobody is in the vicinity (especially children) and entering during the tipping process is prohibited”. .
The farmer and the pensioner would have caused the death of the nine-year-old, as court spokesman Peter Egger quoted in a media release from the criminal complaint on Wednesday. Whether the court sees the course of this accident in the same way will be seen at the end of January.