Over 130 people were injured when the man drove his car into the crowd on May 26. The youngest victim was a six-month-old child.
According to the judge in the case, it was pure luck that no one died when the man, instead of braking, pressed the gas pedal when, according to his own account, he panicked after giving an acquaintance a lift to the celebration.
The now 54-year-old man has admitted all 31 charges, nine of which relate to grievous bodily harm and one to the man's "shockingly bad driving". According to his defense attorneys, he had neither motive nor intent for the actions, but Judge Andrew Menary dismisses the idea that he acted in panic.
"You plowed forward at high speed for a long distance and ran over people with violence, person after person after person. For no other reason than impatience and arrogance," Menary said as he read out the verdict of 21.5 years in prison.
