PROSECUTORS in the UK are looking into ways a motorist in Germany can be brought to justice for causing life-threatening injuries near Tadcaster.
It is now nearly two years since Ingeborg Wesseler, 60, drove a van on the wrong side of the road and crashed head-on into a car coming the other way on the A162 flyover.
The car driver was in hospital for weeks with internal injuries.
York Crown Court heard that he is still receiving medical treatment for them.
Wesseler has yet to be sentenced for her actions because she returned to her home in Germany after the crash in September 2019.
First her case was delayed because Covid travel restrictions meant she couldn’t return to the UK.
Then her legal team sent York Crown Court a doctor’s report saying she is unfit to travel.
York Crown Court heard the CPS is investigating whether a sentencing hearing could be held during which she would be physically in a German court, with a German judge, and would attend the English court via a video link.
The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, wanted to know whether the German judicial authorities would agree to such a link and what kind of sentence could be imposed and enforced by the German authorities if she remained in Germany.
He ordered solicitors for the prosecution and defence to liaise and report back at a hearing in October.
Wesseler, of Joseph Haydn Weg, Werl, North Rhine Westphalia, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving in September 2020 when she attended York Magistrates' Court by video link from her home.
Magistrates heard she was also seriously injured in the crash which happened between 5am and 6am on September 22, 2019.
Her solicitor Clive Bergen said she had become confused following directions on Google Maps and had momentarily lost concentration.
Magistrates sent her case to York Crown Court for sentence.
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