Businessman wrongly branded as driver in fatal crash
Wednesday 7th October 2026 on 19:15 in
Estonia
A Tallinn businessman was wrongly identified online as the driver who killed a woman in a road crash near Rakvere, ERR’s Pealtnägija programme reported. Prosecutors confirmed that Neeme Kass was not in the vehicle.
The crash happened at about 7 p.m. on October 23 last year in Näpi, near Rakvere, in western Viru County. A Nissan SUV struck and killed Liina Kuntor-Kits, an experienced teacher and support worker for children with special needs, at a pedestrian crossing in dark, rainy conditions.
The driver acknowledged hitting the woman but said he had not seen her because of the poor weather. He left the scene and contacted police the next day, after learning from news reports that a woman had died in a crash in Näpi.
After an investigation lasting nearly a year, the Viru District Prosecutor’s Office decided not to bring charges. It said an analysis of the evidence and expert findings had not established that the driver intentionally breached traffic rules or his duty of care. The decision prompted anger on social media, with some people questioning how a driver could escape responsibility after a fatal collision.
During the investigation, authorities had disclosed only that the suspect was 48 at the time of the crash. The victim’s son told the newspaper Virumaa Teataja that the driver was a former state official who advised on major public procurements. That detail appears to have led people to search for the driver’s identity, and suspicion quickly fell on Kass, a 49-year-old businessman and father of three.
Kass said he was abroad when the crash happened, travelling back from the Czech Republic through Poland with his family. His family photographs also showed him overseas. Prosecutor Maarja Germann confirmed that Kass was not in the car and called the claim that he had caused the crash “complete nonsense.”
Kass said his sister alerted him to a social media post bearing his photograph. Within 24 hours, he had become widely known as the man who had killed a woman and fled the scene, although the allegation was false.