The wife of the CEO of German national airline Lufthansa, Carsten Spohr, has been accused of running over and killing a young woman in Porto Cervo, on Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda.
According to Italian media on July 11, Vivian Spohr was driving her BMW X5 4×4 down central Via Aga Khan in the early afternoon of July 8 and stopped at a pedestrian crossing to let a group of people cross the road.
She then set off and allegedly collided with 24-year-old Gaia Costa.
CCTV recordings reportedly showed Costa raising her hand to signal to the driver. The subsequent collision led to Costa being taken to hospital where she later died of what were described as severe head injuries.
Spohr – whose family owns a property on Sardinia – reportedly tested negative for drugs or alcohol.
The police opened an investigation over alleged negligent homicide and at the time of writing were investigating whether Spohr was allegedly on the phone during the incident.
The site involved in the probe is situated in a 30 kmh speed-limit zone before a stop sign at a roundabout.
Spohr was reportedly back at home in Germany late on July 11 and the 4×4 had been impounded.
According to the media, Costa lived in Tempio Pausania, a town of 13,000 people around 60km from Porto Cervo. She was working as a nanny in the holiday resort during the summer. Her father was a well-known Sardinian trade unionist.
A lawyer for the Spohr family told German tabloid Bild on July 11: “The exact circumstances of the accident are now being investigated. The Spohr family has expressed its deepest sympathy to the victim’s relatives.”
Spohr has been patron of Help Alliance, a German NGO that supported education projects for young people in third-world countries.
Her husband Carsten has been the CEO of German flag-carrier Lufthansa since 2014. The couple have two daughters.
