For over six months, the escape that allowed him to get away with it. But today, a exactly two hundred days after the accidentthis 62-year-old German truck driver who works for his brother’s haulage company is located in carcere a Munsterwaiting for a judge to decide whether to follow up on the mandate of European arrest issued by the court of Vicenza and deliver it to Italy.
The German police picked him up at warriorin North Rhine, and Thursday morning is appeared before the magistrate assisted by Thomas Kleinthe lawyer who took up his defense together with thelawyer Antonio Salzano. «I didn’t realize I hit it», the truck driver has always maintained, who in 2001 he had already been sentenced in Foggia for having fled after an accident without rescuing the injured and that in 2014 he had seen his license withdrawn in Chieti for driving while intoxicated.
“A mistake while driving can happen,” he reflects Carlo Rebellinthe brother of the champion – but what is unacceptable is how that man behaved afterwards, with the escape and all. In recent months he has never made himself heard, perhaps to apologize or provide a justification. Nothing. His arrest gives us some relief, but let’s hope it’s only the first step in punishing him as he deserves».
A few months earlier, Davide Rebellin had announced his retirement from racingat 51 and after a career that had led him to win, among other things, an edition of theAmstel Gold Race (in 2004), three of the Walloon Arrow (in 2004, 2007 and 2009) and one of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège (in 2004), as well as a stop at the Tour of Italy. It was that November morning training along a very busy road a few kilometers from Lonigo, the town where he grew up, even as a sportsman, before moving to Montecarlo with his wife.
According to the experts, going through a large rotary the german truck has reached Rebellin — whose only fault was to put on in front of the truckinstead of letting it pass — and then it has swerved right into a restaurant parking lot, perhaps without even activating the arrow, because in that case he would have activated the video camera which would have allowed him to see the cyclist. The vehicle has overwhelmed the sampledragging it for a few meters. According to video surveillance images and some witnesses (who even photographed him with their cell phones) the driver got out,approached the body and then left leaving the victim.
Rieke reached theInterport of Veronawhere he uploaded some material, and from there he came back in Germany before it could be intercepted. On 28 December, at the request of the Vicenza prosecutor’s office, the German police seized the truckdiscovering that the trailer had been replaced. A month later the carabinieri went up to The count and there, in a workshop, they were finally able to study the lorry, discovering the marks left by the bike on the bumper of the tractorbut also those of the detergent used to wash the tracks.
In the ordinance, the investigating judge writes that “Rebellin’s death is to be attributed exclusively to a plurality of violations of behavioral rules by Rieke in driving the articulated lorryTO”. The champion’s brother spreads his arms: «The gossips said that somehow it was David’s fault, that he shouldn’t be there at that moment. Now, finally, we have proof that the responsibility for the accident rests solely with the truck driver».