Oscar Pistorius is serving a five-year prison sentence for killing his model girlfriend, and now the South African Olympian’s brother could find himself in jail. Carl Pistorius has been charged with reckless and negligent driving.
Pistorius was formally charged on Friday, stemming from an incident in August, in which he was involved in a head-on collision. No one else was injured in the car accident, but he is being charged, in large part, because he didn’t give a statement to police.
“The investigating officer obtained the statements of other parties involved in the accident as well as a few witnesses, but despite several attempts he could not obtain the statement from Mr. Pistorius,” Col. Ronel Otto said via Eyewitness News, a media outlet in South Africa. “The docket was then sent to court, the prosecutor then instructed he should be charged.”
This isn’t the first time Pistorius has been in trouble for reckless driving. He was involved in a 2008 accident that left a woman dead. He was charged with culpable homicide and manslaughter but was acquitted when it was determined the motorcyclist crashed into the back of his vehicle because she was going too fast.
While Pistorius beat his culpable homicide charge, the same can’t be said for his younger brother. Oscar Pistorius was acquitted for murder in September but found guilty of the equivalent of manslaughter for shooting and killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his South African home. He maintains that he thought he was shooting an intruder when he fired through a bathroom door.
Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years in jail in October. He will be eligible for parole after 10 months and could leave prison for house arrest. However, the 28-year-old could see his sentence extended, since Judge Thokozile Masipa has granted the prosecutors' request to appeal the verdict. The case will be brought before South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal, and a murder conviction would carry a minimum sentence of 15 years.
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