The investigation into the failure to perform duties by police officers from Piotrków Trybunalski has been discontinued. They were said to have hindered the proceedings after the tragic accident on the A1 motorway, where parents and a five-year-old child died last autumn. The investigators found that the actions of the police officers did not contain the elements of a prohibited act. In the meantime, the perpetrator of the accident fled abroad and remains there to this day.
The spokesman for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, prosecutor Piotr Antoni Skiba, wrote in a statement that the investigation was ongoing into the failure to fulfill the duties of police officers from the Municipal Police Headquarters in Piotrków Trybunalski in the period from September 16, 2023 to September 26, 2023.
As reported, improper performance of official duties related to identifying the perpetrator road accident and its course, was to direct the criminal proceedings in the case and make it more difficult. In this way, the police officers were to act to the detriment of public and private interests.
Read also: From a Horrific Accident to Being Held in Dubai. A Timeline After the A1 Tragedy
Phones, monitoring and metadata from police systems under the microscope
The prosecutor's office announced that the proceedings reconstructed the chronology of the incident from the night of September 16 to 17, 2023. Telephone calls made by Sebastian M., the driver of the BMW car involved in the incident, as well as his passengers and family, were analyzed.
The same analysis was carried out on the phones of police officers from the Municipal Police Headquarters in Piotrków Trybunalski who conducted activities at the scene. The prosecutor also examined the CCTV recording from the Municipal Police Headquarters in Piotrków Trybunalski and metadata from police computer systems.
“Personal data of police officers throughout Poland were analyzed in terms of possible kinship and affinity with the perpetrator of the incident and the possibility of exerting influence on officers participating in procedural activities in the first hours after the incident, but the results of this check did not lead to confirmation of such facts,” prosecutor Skiba said in a statement.
The prosecutor's office informed that the analysis of the evidence led to the conclusion that the actions taken at the scene and by officers during the investigation do not bear any signs of support or official misconduct.
No pressure or influence was found.to which the officers were allegedly subjected so that the driver of the BMW car involved in the tragic incident could avoid criminal liability for causing the disaster.
The District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw has discontinued the investigation, finding that the police officers' actions do not constitute a prohibited act. The decision is not final and may be appealed by the injured parties.
Tragic accident on A1
A tragic accident on the A1 motorway in Sierosław near Piotrków Trybunalski (Łódź Province) occurred on the evening of September 16, 2023. Sebastian M., rushing down the motorway in a tuned BMW at a speed estimated by experts at approximately 250 km per hour, hit the back of a Kia car carrying a three-person family from Silesia.
The Kia, pushed by the force of the impact, hit the highway's energy barriers and caught fire. The parents and their 5-year-old son died in the burning car.
Immediately after the accident, firefighters reported that “there was a collision between two passenger cars”. On September 18, the Piotrków police issued a statement in which it was written that “the driver of the Kia hit the energy barriers for currently unexplained reasons, then the car caught fire”. There was no information that the accident also involved a BMW.
On September 24, in another statement by the Piotrków police, it was written that “a Kia and a BMW were involved in the accident”. “The police secured a number of traces and questioned witnesses. We also obtained a number of recordings from cameras, which we hope will help explain what caused this huge tragedy. The subject of this investigation is also to clarify whether the behavior of the BMW driver had a direct impact on the occurrence of the incident in question,” the officers said at the time.
After the accident, the police did not detain Sebastian M., and when investigators decided to do so, the suspect was already abroad, in Dubai. After issuing an arrest warrant and an Interpol red notice, Sebastian M. was found and captured in Dubai. However, he has not yet been brought back to the country.
Main image source: District Police Headquarters in Piotrków Trybunalski