The Piotrków Trybunalski District Court sentenced Sebastian M. to eight years in prison on 21 October 2026, the highest term available under the charge's legal classification.
On 16 September 2023 the BMW hit a Kia near Sierosław. The Kia struck barriers and burned, killing two adults and their five-year-old son.
Reconstruction experts put the BMW at 315 to 329 km/h, against the Kia's cruise control at about 140 km/h, and found the Kia never changed lanes.
Dubai police detained Sebastian M. on 4 October 2023. After the UAE agreed to extradite him, announced by Adam Bodnar in mid-May 2025, he was returned to Poland on 26 May 2025.
On 21 October 2026 the District Court in Piotrków Trybunalski sentenced Sebastian M. to eight years in prison for causing a crash on the A1 motorway in September 2023 that killed a family of three. Under the legal classification in the indictment, eight years was the highest penalty available, so a life sentence was not an option. The crash happened on the evening of 16 September 2023 near the village of Sierosław, on the carriageway heading toward Katowice. The BMW driven by Sebastian M. hit the rear of a Kia, which then struck energy-absorbing barriers and burst into flames. Two adults and their five-year-old son died in the Kia, while two passengers in the BMW survived.
Prosecutors asked for the eight-year term, parole only after three quarters of the sentence (six years), and a 15-year ban on driving any motor vehicle. Compensation claims for the victims' families were added to that request. Sebastian M. and his lawyer, Katarzyna Hebda, asked for acquittal. He has consistently denied causing the crash, challenged expert findings on speed and the crash site, and said he does not trust the impartiality of prosecutors.
After the crash Sebastian M. left Poland, travelling through Germany and Turkey to the United Arab Emirates. According to naTemat, he was first questioned only as a witness, and police records listed the BMW driver as the likely culprit only hours later. Prosecutors then issued a wanted notice, a court ordered his arrest, and Interpol issued a red notice for him. Dubai police detained him on 4 October 2023, with support from Polish officers. The extradition process took months: a Dubai court found it admissible in January 2024, but he appealed. In mid-May 2025 then justice minister Adam Bodnar announced that the UAE had agreed to hand him over. He was brought to Poland on 26 May 2025 and has been in custody since.
The trial ran for about a year and drew on nearly 30 volumes of case files. Judge Renata Folkman heard dozens of people, including witnesses to the crash, police officers and firefighters at the scene, the BMW's passengers, the owners of a firm that tuned the car's performance, and a former employee of Sebastian M. Reconstruction experts told the court the BMW was travelling at between 315 and 329 km/h before the impact, while the Kia was on cruise control at about 140 km/h. They also established that the Kia driver did not change lanes and stayed in the middle lane, which contradicts the defence version that the Kia cut in front of the BMW.
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The defence argued that not all traces on the road had been considered and that the evidence had been treated selectively. Sebastian M. questioned the speed estimates and the location of the crash.
In early October closing speeches were heard in court. The prosecutor, Aleksander Duda of the Katowice District Prosecutor's Office, argued that the maximum penalty did not match the gravity of the act.
“There is only the highest penalty that the law allows. It is eight years in prison.”
Lukasz Kowalski, the lawyer for the victims' family, said that he would have asked for a longer term if the law had permitted it.
“If a 20-year sentence were possible, I would ask for 20. If it were 30, I would ask for 30.”
The court delivered its judgment on 21 October 2026, closing a case that had been running for more than three years since the crash.
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A Polish court in Piotrków Trybunalski handed Sebastian M. an eight-year prison term on 21 October 2026. The September 2023 crash on the A1 killed a family of three, two adults and their five-year-old son.
AI text based on reports by polsatnews.pl, TVP Info, naTemat.pl and other publishers. Published .