A U.S. airman stationed at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, shown here, is facing charges in a German court stemming from a head-on collision on the autobahn A60 in May. The crash killed a 23-year-old German woman, and the airman is accused of negligent homicide in her death. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — A Spangdahlem Air Base airman is facing a negligent homicide charge in German court over a wrong-way autobahn crash that killed a 23-year-old German woman.
Charges against the unidentified airman stemming from the May 3 head-on collision were announced Tuesday in a statement by the Trier public prosecutor’s office, which took jurisdiction in the case.
The Trier District Court issued an arrest warrant for the airman, who is in U.S. military custody, according to prosecutors. In addition to negligent homicide, he’s also charged with negligent bodily harm and endangering road traffic.
The crash occurred on the A60 near Landscheid a few miles east of the base in the rural Eifel region. Prosecutors say the airman had a blood alcohol level of 0.14% at the time of the crash. The legal limit in Germany is 0.05% in most cases.
Driving the wrong way in his Jeep Wrangler, he collided with a small car carrying three people. The German woman driving the car was taken to a hospital, where she later died of her injuries. Two 24-year-old passengers also suffered serious injuries.
The airman was treated for minor injuries.
Germany has primary jurisdiction in cases involving a U.S. service member and a German citizen, but it usually waives that right in accordance with the 1951 NATO Status of Forces Agreement.
German authorities filed a negligent homicide charge against a U.S. airman stationed at Spangdahlem Air Base over a wrong-way collision on the A60 autobahn in May that killed a 23-year-old German driver. (Stars and Stripes)
However, the agreement allows the waiver to be withdrawn within 21 days for egregious offenses such as robbery, rape or crimes that result in death.
Prosecutors decided to revoke the waiver against the Spangdahlem airman, meaning the criminal proceedings will take place in German courts. A date for the main hearing has not yet been set.
The prosecutor’s office said in May that the decision to retain jurisdiction was based on the number of victims involved.
A trial in the German court system would allow for family members of the deceased and the victims who were injured to participate as joint plaintiffs with their own attorneys, in contrast with procedures in American military courtrooms.
In the past six years, German authorities have ceded jurisdiction to the U.S. military in at least two fatal cases involving American service members.
One was the highly publicized murder trial of a Spangdahlem airman in October. A military court found Airman 1st Class Grant Harrison not guilty of unpremeditated murder in the 2023 stabbing death of martial artist Michael Ovsjannikov in Wittlich.
Harrison’s acquittal sparked outrage in the communities around Spangdahlem and led to several protests outside the base. Residents at the protests said the outcome had created mistrust in the U.S. military’s judicial system.
