Accident on Lake Garda, German arrested driving a motorboat

The 52-year-old German who last June 19 was driving the motorboat that overwhelmed a boat on Lake Garda was arrested, a nautical accident in which two people died: 25-year-old Greta Nedrotti and 37-year-old Umberto Garzarella. The carabinieri, under the coordination of the Brescia Public Prosecutor’s Office, picked up Patrick Alexander Kassen near the state border in Vipiteno, who had returned to Italian territory accompanied by his own defender, to surrender himself. Then, they carried out the precautionary measure in prison issued against him for the double manslaughter of Greta Nedrotti and Umberto Garzarella at the offices of the provincial command of Brescia. The activity carried out by the Brescia Public Prosecutor’s Office to bring to justice the person held responsible for the very serious episode has been decisive in these days. The prosecutor first requested and obtained a precautionary detention order in prison against the driver of the motorboat, who in the meantime had returned to Germany. For this reason, the Brescia Public Prosecutor’s Office immediately requested a European arrest warrant, simultaneously activating the collaboration of Eurojust and the international police cooperation service at the Ministry of the Interior, for a prompt execution of the provision. Just today, however, the validation of the European arrest warrant requested by the Brescia Public Prosecutor’s Office was awaited at the Munich Court of Appeal. As can be seen from the order, the investigators from the first moments following the discovery of the corpse of Umberto Garzarella and following the fundamental investigations ordered by the Public Prosecutor of Brescia, have collected univocal and concordant elements of crime against the suspect who – as emerged during the interrogations conducted by the public prosecutor – he was found to be the driver of the motorboat at the moment of impact. In particular, Kassen’s overt state of drunkenness was documented. In fact, multiple and converging testimonies have been collected, also found by video documentation and health certifications that leave no room for doubt. Furthermore, the speed of the motorboat at the moment of impact, reconstructed through a night simulation carried out on site by the coast guard, would be estimated at about 20 knots, four times higher than the permitted navigation limit. The arrested, after the ritual operations, was taken to the local ‘Neri Fischione prison, at the disposal of the judicial authority.