Daimler CEO targeted in probe over test-track death

[bum-man]

German public prosecutors have started investigating Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche on suspicions of involuntary manslaughter involving the fatal accident of a 27-year-old engineer caused by an intern on a test track.

"There is an investigation," senior public prosecutor Alexander Retemeyer told Reuters on Friday, confirming a report in German daily Stuttgarter Zeitung.

"It is highly doubtful that the chief executive personally can be held responsible for this, however."

A spokesman for Daimler said the company was not informed of any investigation, and if there was one, it should be directed at the group's management board and not Zetsche personally.

The Stuttgarter Zeitung reported earlier that the parents of the 27-year old engineer felt the company should not have put the intern behind the wheel of a fast car on a test track.

"There is already a ruling from the district court in Papenburg in which the judge expressly found that Daimler could not be held at fault in any way for the accident," the Daimler spokesman added.

Source: Daimler CEO targeted in test-track death - Business - World business - msnbc.com

I doubt anything will happen, but surprising news none-the-less.

 

[MBFanToDeath]

Statement of position on preliminary investigations

With regard to reports about criminal charges and preliminary investigations of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, represented by Chairman of the Board of Management Dieter Zetsche, concerning alleged gross negligence resulting in death, the Company states as follows:

In legal proceedings against the perpetrator of the accident before the Papenburg District Court on July 12, both the judge and the public prosecutor explicitly stated that the company Daimler, and consequently also the Chairman of the Board of Management, were in no way to blame. In fact, the court found that the driver was solely to blame because he did not look straight ahead at the road in front of him for a distance of several kilometers. The initiation of preliminary investigations of the Board of Management is a pure formality. We assume that these proceedings will be discontinued.

Daimler AG

 

[Mr Robert]

This is just stupid. Workers has to take responsibility of their own actions.

 

[Mr. Mercedes]

Dumb.

 

[K-A]

I don't know the whole story, but it's ludicrous and pathetic to target Dr. Z who probably had absolutely no idea about what was going on in this instance.

 

[Human]

^
Exactly! Case Closed.