A 5-year-old boy from the municipality of Mol in the Antwerp province was severely injured when he was hit by a car driven by a 10-year-old girl.
The girl was getting driving lessons from her grandfather in a Toyota Land Cruiser, a heavy SUV, on the public road. The man risks a prison sentence of one year and a driving ban of 5 years.
"The boy was outside with his sister, playing with their bike," said Marijn Van Nooten, the lawyer of the victim and his parents, reports Het Laatste Nieuws. "Suddenly, the little sister ran inside panicking to get her mother. She found her son completely covered in blood on the street, with a severe concussion, a broken collarbone and a few lost teeth," he added.
The grandfather (77) of the driving girl does not realise how bad this could have been, according to Van Nooten. "That man has no sense of guilt at all," he said. "What if the car had stopped just 10 centimetres further? Then the boy would have died and the man would have made a murderer out of his granddaughter," Van Nooten added.
The little boy is afraid to come outside since the accident, and his mother has also been traumatised. "The parents could not bring themselves to attend the trial. They are not ready to be confronted with this man," their lawyer said.
The public prosecutor, Peter Vanderflaes, stressed several times that he did not understand who lets a 10-year-old child drive. "Moreover, this was not the first time that this happened," Vanderflaes said. "When his daughter arrived, she told her father: 'This was only a matter of time.' Which means his own family had talked to him about this before. Yet he continued with his driving lessons. Worst of all: chances are he will do it again in the future, because he does not realise at all what kind of risks he took," he added.
"I have taught all my children and grandchildren how to drive. It was by chance that it went wrong this time," the grandfather said when the judge asked him if he realised what he had done, reports De Telegraaf. "If I realise that this could have been fatal? No, I do not think it could have been," he added.
The judgement will follow in December.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
