Pistorius’s brother to face charges of ‘negligent’ driving

Oscar Pistorius’s older brother Carl will next month appear in court on charges of negligent driving after being involved in a serious road crash in August last year, South African police said Thursday.

A decision was reached to charge him after he failed to submit to police a post-accident statement on the accident.

“Mr Pistorius did not want to cooperate with the police, he did not give his statement,” police spokeswoman Ronel Otto told AFP.

He is due to appear in court at the end of February in the northern town of Modimolle, she said.

The 29-year-old’s car collided head-on with a vehicle along an expressway around 120 kilometres (75 miles) northwest of Pretoria in August last year.

He suffered lacerations to his heart and liver and he also went into respiratory failure, according to a family spokeswoman. He remained in hospital for several weeks.

Police have not brought any charges against the other driver involved in the same accident.

Carl was acquitted in May 2013 of culpable homicide and reckless driving over a fatal crash in 2008 in which his vehicle collided with a motorbike driven by a woman who died in hospital a few days later.

His Paralympian sprinter brother began a five-year prison stretch on October 21 after being found guilty of culpable homicide, or manslaughter, for shooting dead his lover Reeva Steenkamp.

He has said he shot Steenkamp four times through a locked bathroom door in his apartment after mistaking the model for an intruder.

Trial judge Thokozile Masipa also found him guilty of negligently handling a gun in restaurant in a separate incident.