German politician guilty in ski death
Monday March 9, 2009 - Email this article to a friend

Mr Althaus is a state governor and was travelling at high speed when he collided with a woman in the Riesnealm ski area in Austria last January. 

The 41 year old woman, who was a mother of 4, died on the way to hospital from multiple head injuries.

He says he has no memory of the accident but accepts responsibility for the incident. 

He did not appear in court in person as he is still recovering from his injuries.

In a statement read to the court he said "I stand by my responsibility, as it is shown by a reconstruction of the accident, although I can not remember the skiing accident".

He was fined 33,000 euros and ordered to pay 5,000 euros to the husband of the dead woman.

The judge, Thomas Priebsch, said afterwards he gave Althaus a relatively light sentence because of mitigating circumstances. He said that Althaus had expressed genuine remorse and that the psychological burden of having a death on his conscience was punishment enough.

Althaus could have been sentenced to a year in prison.

He was wearing a helmet and she was not.  The incident led to much debate about the wearing of helmets while skiing and sales went up sharply in Austria and Germany.

We covered the whole story here on PlanetSKI so take a look here for some background information and a look at the whole helmet debate.

Should ski accidents be covered up? Read our editorial feature here.

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