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ACCIDENT

Man admits manslaughter charge in trial over Danish jetski tragedy

A 25-year-old man has admitted to causing the death of two American students in a high-speed jetski accident in Copenhagen Harbour in May this year.

Published: 18 December 2017 12:34 CET
Man admits manslaughter charge in trial over Danish jetski tragedy
Tributes left near the scene of the accident in May. Photo: Ivan Riordan Boll/Polfoto/Ritzau

The man’s defence lawyer confirmed the plea at Copenhagen City Court as court proceedings over the accident began on Monday morning.

The 25-year-old is accused of negligent manslaughter under aggravating circumstances.

“My client admits that he lost control of the jetski, thereby committing negligent manslaughter,” his defence counsel Jane Ranum said.

The fatal incident, in which the two international students, 18-year-old Leah Bell from Lousiana and 21-year-old Linsey Malia from Massachusetts lost their lives, occurred on May 6th this year near the Langebro bridge in the centre of Copenhagen.

Negligent manslaughter provisions are most commonly used in Denmark in cases relating to road traffic accidents.

Seven other people are also on trial for the lesser charge of putting lives in danger by recklessly driving their jetskis on the busy Copenhagen Harbour.

All seven deny the charges against them.

According to several witness accounts, a number of jetskis were seen travelling at high speeds – estimated by different accounts at between 30-40 and 50-60 kilometres per hour – in the harbour at the time of the accident.

The maximum permitted speed is six knots, around 11 kilometres per hour.

None of the eight individuals had the necessary permits for driving jetskis in the harbour.

The 25-year-old piloted the jetski that crashed into a rented boat near the Langebro bridge, killing the two American women.

There were seven people on board the boat, which was owned by rental company Go Boat.

The seven on board were taking part in a study exchange programme, Study Abroad in Scandinavia (DIS) confirmed at the time of the accident.

A survivor of the accident has previously said that the group became scared after a jetski passed close to them. They had asked Linsey Malia, who was steering the boat, to sail to the side of the harbour just before the accident happened, Ritzau reports.

All eight jetski riders sailed to the harbour in nearby Brøndby after the accident but said they did not realise the seriousness of the incident until police arrived.

The driver of the jetski that crashed with the boat has since been remanded in police custody, partly due to previous convictions for violent behaviour and theft, according to previous reports.

A verdict is expected in the case in January. 

READ ALSO: Denmark to introduce tougher jetski rules after tragedy

ACCIDENT

Cable car survivor must be returned to family in Italy, Israel court rules

An Israeli court ruled Monday that a boy whose parents died in an Italian cable car crash be returned to family in Italy, after his grandfather was accused of illegally bringing him to Israel.

Published: 25 October 2021 17:39 CEST
Aya Biran , a paternal aunt of Eitan Biran who was the sole survivor of a deadly cable car crash in Italy, arrives at Tel Aviv’s Justice Court on October 10, 2021
Aya Biran , a paternal aunt of Eitan Biran who was the sole survivor of a deadly cable car crash in Italy, arrives at Tel Aviv’s Justice Court on October 10, 2021. Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP

The battle for custody of Eitan Biran, the sole survivor of the May accident that killed 14 people, has captured headlines since his maternal grandfather, Shmulik Peleg, brought him to Israel on a private jet last month.

The child lost his parents, younger brother and great-grandparents in the May 23 accident near the top of the Mottarone mountain in the northwestern Piedmont region, where the family was out on a Sunday excursion to the scenic spot served by the cable car.

The cable car’s pull cable snapped just before it reached destination. It then flew backwards, dislodging itself from a second, supporting cable, and crashed to the ground.

Investigations later revealed that emergency brakes that could have stopped the car on its supporting cable, avoiding the tragedy, had been deliberately deactivated to avoid delays following a technical malfunction.

Three individuals responsible for the cable car’s management were subsequently arrested.

The wreckage of a cable car that crashed on the slopes of the Mottarone peak above Stresa, Piedmont on May 23, 2021, killing 14.

The wreckage of a cable car that crashed on the slopes of the Mottarone peak above Stresa, Piedmont on May 23, 2021, killing 14. MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP.

Peleg has insisted that he drove Eitan from Italy to Switzerland before jetting him back to Israel – instead of returning him paternal aunt Aya Biran, who lives in northern Italy – because Eitan’s late parents wanted him to be raised in the Jewish state.

But Peleg has become the subject kidnapping probe by Italian prosecutors and Israeli police questioned him over those allegations last month.

A statement Monday from the Tel Aviv court where Aya Biran had filed a complaint said judges “did not accept the grandfather’s claim that the aunt has no custody rights”.

It recognised an Italian judgement that established Biran as a legitimate guardian and said Peleg had “unlawfully” removed the boy from his aunt’s care.

The court “ordered the return of the minor to his usual place of residence in Italy”.

The court also found that “a connection” between the surviving members of the Italy- and Israel-based relatives was in Eitan’s “best interests”.

Peleg was also ordered to pay Biran’s legal fees, amounting to 70,000 shekels ($22,000).

READ ALSO:

Shmuel Peleg, the grandfather of Eitan Biran, hugs a relative outside the Justice Court in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on October 8, 2021.

Shmuel Peleg, the grandfather of Eitan Biran, hugs a relative outside the Justice Court in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on October 8, 2021. Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP

The case has stirred emotions in Israel, and throngs of journalists had surrounded the Tel Aviv court for hearings last month, with some pro-Peleg protesters insisting it was wrong to send a Jewish child out of Israel.

Before judges ordered the sides to stop talking to the media, Peleg told Israel’s Channel 12 in September that his grandson was “in the place where he is supposed to be, in his home, in Israel.”

Eitan and his parents, Amit Biran and Tal Peleg, had been living in Italy, where Amit Biran was studying medicine, together with their other child, Tom.

Eitan suffered severe chest and abdominal injuries and spent a week in intensive care after the May accident that occurred when a cable snapped on the aerial tram bringing weekend visitors to the top of the Piedmont region’s Mottarone mountain.

The accident was one of Italy’s worst in over two decades.   

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