Daimler Chief Dieter Zetsche (l), with Nissan/Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn at the Frankfurt Motor Show this week.
Daimler AG Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche is facing an involuntary manslaughter probe over the death of an engineer at a company test track in northern Germany, Stuttgarter Zeitung has reported.
The possible charges are considered unusual in that Zetsche was Zetsche was not behind the wheel of the car that crashed and, Daimler AG said in a statement, one court has already cleared the executive, of any charges of gross negligence.
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“In legal proceedings against the perpetrator of the accident before the Papenburg District Court on July 12, both the judge and the public prosecutor explicitly stated that the company Daimler, and consequently also the Chairman of the Board of Management, were in no way to blame,” the company said Friday.
“In fact, the court found that the driver was solely to blame because he did not look straight ahead at the road in front of him for a distance of several kilometers. The initiation of preliminary investigations of the Board of Management is a pure formality. We assume that these proceedings will be discontinued,” the statement added.
The charges also didn’t stop Zetsche from taking a high profile at the Frankfurt Auto Show this week. Zetsche played a prominent role in the Mercedes-Benz press conference during which the maker unveiled its F125! hydrogen car and new B-Class model (Click Here for more on the 2012 B-Class.) He also held a separate press conference with Renault/Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn during which the two outlined the latest developments in their expanding alliance. (For more on that story, Click Here.)
A 27-year old-Daimler engineer died at a test track in Papenburg following an accident caused by an intern, the newspaper said. The intern was convicted over the issue.
The driver’s parents say Daimler is also responsible because it didn’t train the intern before putting him in a fast car. They asked prosecutors in August to look into the issue, Stuttgarter Zeitung reported.