Date: 10/12/2008 10:45 AM
By WILLIAM J. KOLE
Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria (AP) _ Far-right politician Joerg Haider was speeding at more than twice the posted limit before the car crash that killed him, investigators said Sunday as his grief-stricken party appointed a successor.
Flowers, notes and other tributes piled up at the scene of the crash that killed the former leader of the Freedom Party, whose anti-immigration stance and provocative praise of the Nazi era once led the European Union to slap Austria with diplomatic sanctions.
Police reconstructing Saturday’s accident in the southern province of Carinthia, where Haider was governor, said the speedometer in the wreckage of Haider’s high-powered Volkswagen Phaeton limousine was stuck at 142 kph (88 mph).
The speed limit at the crash site is just 70 kph (43 mph), and it drops to 50 kph (31 mph) just 100 meters (yards) further down the road in the direction Haider was heading.
Prosecutor Gottfried Kranz said the high speed appeared to be the main factor in the crash that killed the 58-year-old politician.
“Any speculation about other causes of the accident is weak,” Kranz said, adding that the car was technically sound and police had no reason to suspect foul play.
Police said the car veered off the road after Haider overtook another vehicle, then struck a concrete pillar and rolled over. Haider, who was alone in the car, suffered multiple injuries and died while being rushed to a hospital.
Haider left the Freedom Party a few years ago to found the rightist Alliance for the Future of Austria, which captured about 11 percent of the vote in last month’s national elections.
Visibly shaken party leaders gathered in Vienna on Sunday to name the Alliance’s secretary-general, Stefan Petzner, as Haider’s successor.
Haider had expressed a wish that the party carry on should anything ever happen to him, “and we owe it to him to fulfill that obligation,” another Haider deputy, Herbert Scheibner, told reporters.
It remained unclear what impact Haider’s death would have on talks to form a new coalition government.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.