The Romanian driver caused a lethal pile-up of forty vehicles with his heavy lorry at the Veroia intersection, which consequently led to six people dead and 31 people heavily injured. 

The court sentenced the 39-year-old in 29 years and six months imprisonment without suspension of sentence. In detail, he was imposed sentences of four years imprisonment for every death and one year imprisonment for every injured person. The defendant was found guilty of joinder involuntary manslaughter and causing of joinder disabling injury. But since the offences for which he was sentenced are characterized as misdemeanors, the highest provided sentence he can serve is 10 years imprisonment. The court did not accept the alleviating circumstances of previous honest life and good conduct after the tragic incident and adopted the proposal of the bench prosecutor. Still, it changed the sentence of the Romanian to a sentence subject to recovery for 5 euro a day, which means that once the defendant has raised and paid the money, he will be released because the appeal cannot be reprieved. The 39-year-old has allegedly stated in his defense that he tested his breaks when he passed from Polimilos and established that they didn’t work.