Forty-year old Hans Hoelzel, "Falco", the renown Austrian rock star who gained world fame for his "Rock Me, Amadeus" song, and a personal friend of Formula One champion Niki Lauda, was killed in a traffic accident on the Puerto Plata-Sosua highway, near La Gran Parada. He died when the jeep he was driving crashed into a bus. Cesar Ares German, police commander of Puerto Plata said that the accident took place at 6 pm on Friday, when the artist was entering the highway, after stopping at La Gran Parada. The artist died instantly. His cadaver was taken the Hospital Ricardo Limardo’s morgue, and then to the Centro Regional de Patología de Santiago, for an autopsy. Hans Hoelzel was about to build a luxury village in Cofresí, Puerto Plata, at Hacienda Resorts, where he was renting a villa for the past two years. The Listin Diario newspaper reported that he had had a discussion with a Dominican woman, and had been drinking since early Friday. Reportedly, employees at La Gran Parada had recommended that he not drive, as he was allegedly drunk. He was on his way to the Puerto Plata International Airport to pick up someone. His friend Niki Lauda sent his cadaver to Austria on a special flight. Press reports indicate that Hoelzel was about to release a new CD, "Out of the Dark." Interestingly, one of the songs of the CD is a sad one, "Do I Have to Die to Live?" A special funeral service will be held on Saturday at the Zentral Friedhoff cemetery of Vienna.
