Former driver Marin Čolak given jail term for road crash

Former World Touring Car Championship driver Marin Čolak has been sentenced to three years in prison along with his former friend Dalibor Opačak for their part in a fatal road accident which occured in November 2010, claiming the life of 20-year-old student Ivana Obad.

Čolak, now 31, was found guilty of driving recklessly and in gross violation of road laws, with judge Milenko Đaković passing a damning sentence on the pair, remarking that neither Čolak or Opačak showed a sign of genuine remorse, according to a report in the Croatian newspaper Večernji list.

The two were found guilty of racing each other on the highway near Bosiljevo in the Karlovac county of Croatia, with Čolak driving a Ferrari with Obad as his passenger, while his friend Opačak was behind the wheel of a Nissan. Opačak’s Nissan made contact with Čolak’s Ferrari at a speed of 210km/h, with Čolak losing control of his car and barrel rolling, with the car then catching fire. Čolak escaped though with severe injuries, while passenger Obad was trapped inside and perished.

The case has taken five years to reach a conclusion after being moved from Karlovac court to Zagreb due to a number of failures during the course of the investigation, with both drivers blaming each other for the crash.

Čolak is to date the only Croatian driver to have competed in the WTCC, racing for a full season in 2009 with his own team in a SEAT León TFSI, which he then raced in the 2010 ETCC before his racing career was ended after the tragedy.