The six-year-old daughter drowned last summer when a pedal boat sank in the Mur, her eight-year-old sister barely survived.
It was September 4th when father and mother – both come from Afghanistan and are not good swimmers themselves – rented a pedal boat from the Auwiesen leisure facility. Together with the daughters, neither of whom could swim and were not wearing swimming aids, they drove out to the storage area of the Mur power plant. Suddenly water entered the boat. The father tried to swim to shore with both daughters, but in vain. He was only able to bring the motionless eight-year-old to shore. The younger of the two siblings drowned. The mother just managed to save herself.
Passers-by successfully resuscitated eight-year-olds
Passers-by resuscitated the eight-year-old, who was then flown to the hospital by helicopter. There she was in a coma for days and ultimately survived the accident. Hansjörg Bacher from the Graz public prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday when asked by APA that the criminal complaint was filed last week. Accordingly, the boat had a leak and therefore sank. The prosecutor therefore blames the boat rental company on the one hand. He may not have carried out any regular maintenance and therefore offered a non-roadworthy boat for hire.
The parents, meanwhile, are said to be partly to blame for not using swimming aids for the children, even though they could not swim and were not good swimmers themselves. Incidentally, the proceedings against the man who handed over the family boat were dropped because he wasn’t even employed by the rental company and only handed over the boats. A trial date has not yet been set.
Source: Nachrichten
