A young joyrider case
Before the Velvet revolution in 1989 and a few years after it, the standard of living in my country wasn’t very high. For example not every family had a car. Young people, especially men used to dream of driving, but they were mostly without a car, so some of them satisfied their desire for driving in an inappropriate way and used to steal cars to joyride.
Along the Penal Code, joyriding is a crime called Unauthorized usage of somebody else’s motor vehicle, so in that period I sent lots of joyriders to the court.
People, who steal a car in order to joyride, are mostly drunk, because they usually commit such crime during the night on their way home from a pub, but nevertheless they drive too fast, so they often cause a car accident.
In the late 90s. last century, the standard of living quickly improved, so even young people were able to buy at least a second-hand car.
This is probable the main reason, why the number of joyriders has fallen since, so such cases are rare nowadays.
The last case of joyriding, which investigation I supervised and which was slightly different, occured this summer. 18 years old student, without a driving licence, took, without any permission, keys of his parents’ car, opened the door, started the engine and set off for a joyride. In spite of the fact, that he can’t drive a car safely, he went very fast, so after a short ride he wasn’t able to go through a sharp left turn and got himself with a car out of the road, where he crashed into a tree next to the road and seriously damaged the car.
Fortunately for him, he was sober.
A policeman from a local police station started investigation of the accident in summarily preparatory proceedings, but the joyrider wasn’t accused, because his parents, as the owners of a damaged car, made use of their right and refused to give consent to the investigation against him, so it wasn’t possible to bring him to trial and the case had to be closed forever.