[InTime News]
An Athens prosecutor on Monday brought criminal charges against a 16-year-old motorcyclist over a severe weekend hit-and-run accident that left a teenage girl critically injured.
The youth, who has been identified as a Sudanese national, was formally accused of dangerous driving that resulted in severe injuries, driving without a license and abandoning the victim of a potentially fatal accident.
The girl, who is also 16, was hit as she tried to cross central Liossion Street on foot Saturday at a point where there was no pedestrian crossing. The motorcycle that hit her was reportedly speeding and driving on the wrong side of the two-way road after overtaking a car.
While the bike also crashed after the collision, the two people on it reportedly picked themselves up and drove off without stopping to help the badly injured pedestrian.
The 16-year-old suspected driver is expected to appear before an examining magistrate in the coming days, together with his alleged passenger, who has also been arrested and faces criminal charges of abandoning the site of a potentially fatal accident.
Another two people – a 20-year-old woman who identified herself as the bike’s owner and allegedly falsely claimed to police after the accident that it had been stolen, and a second 20-year-old – face misdemeanor charges of harboring a criminal, providing false testimony and making a false deposition to authorities.
Police said the 16-year-old youth did not have a driver’s license. He surrendered after being identified through surveillance footage and testimony from the other suspects.
The girl underwent surgery for severe head and body injuries, and doctors said the next 24 hours will be crucial for her.