Overview

• A 74-year-old former taxi passenger was found not guilty of negligent homicide at Berlin’s Amtsgericht Tiergarten.
• The 50-year-old cyclist collided with the rear passenger door at Kantstraße and Wielandstraße in Charlottenburg and later died in hospital, with the taxi having stopped on a hatched no-traffic area.
• The court said an accident expert could not reliably reconstruct the sequence of events and concluded the door was not opened wide.
• The judge deemed it plausible the cyclist had steered around a turning vehicle from Wielandstraße, potentially placing him outside the passenger’s view despite a shoulder check.
• The prosecutor had sought a €1,500 fine; the acquittal was issued at the state’s expense and is not yet legally binding.