Crazy...
This happened today in California. What an amazing car that the driver could walk away from something like this.
Linkie.
A driver lost control of a Ferrari sports car traveling more than 100 mph along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu this morning, slamming into a power pole that cut the car — which sells for up to $1 million — in half, according to authorities.
An unidentified passenger, who suffered only minor injuries, told Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies that the driver of the car fled the scene, according to Deputy Ishmael Lua.
The crash took place about 6:15 a.m. near Decker Canyon Road, an exclusive area of multimillion-dollar estates overlooking the Pacific in west Malibu, near Leo Carrillo State Beach.
Authorities theorized that the driver who fled lost control of the vehicle.
The car — reportedly a Ferrari Enzo worth between $600,000 and $1 million — has a top speed of more than 200 mph.
"It's hard to tell exactly. They think it was an Enzo," Lua said. "It's broken in two."
"Let me just say it was going over 100 miles per hour and maybe double that," Lua said.
Lua said the passenger suffered just "bumps and bruises."
Lua said investigators could not say where the vehicle was registered. He suggested it may have been registered in a foreign country.
Traffic on PCH was disrupted this morning during the investigation of the incident.
S.
Last edited by srivendel; 02-21-2006 at 03:50 PM.
Run Forest, Run!The driver took off up the mountains and hasn't been found even after a 3 hour helicopter search, making our pals over at Luxist wonder if it is a case of a celebrity trying to stay out of the limelight.
It gets better:
UPDATE: It turns out the passenger was the owner of the car. The owner who is from the Beverly Hills-Bel Air area says the driver ran off but according to police only the driver's side airbag had blood on it.
S.
I swear Mr insurance Agent...I was Car Jacked! It wasn't my fault. I was really the victim here... really!![]()
This guy deserves what is coming to him.He has the $$$$$$$$$$$$ for the car should has the extra change for track time not to endanger the working stiffs driving to work.
Gabriel
No cue cards and their brains turn to mush!
"That's a 16 valve V-8 HUGE engine that must weigh, gosh, 1500 pounds."
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Wow, 16 valves! What's next, 24? Thirty six? Where does the maddness end?
Wasn't that on an episode of the Simpson!Originally Posted by srivendel
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Here is another link with more to the story
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?I...&date=20060222
2005 Lava Orange MSM #601/1428
211 rwhp, 195 ft. lbs on 1/6/07
California has a blood alcohol limit just to ride in a car?http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?I...&date=20060222
Eriksson had a blood-alcohol level of 0.09, which is above the legal limit...![]()
No - but being in the passenger seat when the cops show up is not a defense for DWI. I once met a stand-up comic who claimed to have tried that. He didn't bleed on the driver's air bag, and it still didn't work for himOriginally Posted by Darron65
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I can top that... How about a Superior Court Judge that claimed she was in the back seat when her two-seat Porsche crashed in a ditch.Originally Posted by onething
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Oh, the irony!
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Stefan Eriksson had hoped that millions of video gamers would experience the thrill of street racing on a hand-held device he helped develop. But then Eriksson's $1-million Ferrari was totaled, an accident that gamers around the world may see as a cruel metaphor for the collapse of the portable console company.
Eriksson was a top executive for Gizmondo, a European video game system maker that two years ago garnered international headlines by challenging Sony and Nintendo with its own PSP-like device.
Eriksson received a $100,000 car allowance from the firm, according to records from the Securities and Exchange Commission, and drove in Le Mans, the famous French motor race, in a Ferrari plastered with Gizmondo signs.
The game company launched last year with a gala in London that included a performance by the pop star Sting. One of the firm's games, Chicane, involved exotic car racing.
But on the eve of Gizmondo's U.S. launch last fall, Eriksson resigned from the firm while in Los Angeles to market the device. His resignation came days before a Swedish newspaper alleged that Eriksson had been convicted of counterfeiting in the Scandinavian country in the early 1990s.
The company quickly collapsed, unable to sell enough devices to justify to game makers that they should supply more titles for the Gizmondo format. Loans could not be repaid, and the company incurred net losses exceeding $100 million, according to the SEC records.
The company's name is now a synonym for hubris in the game world, which was enrapt Wednesday with the news that Eriksson's lavish Italian sports car had been wrecked.
S.
This might be the best story all year.
The plot thickens:
The car's owner, a former video game executive from Sweden, told Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies at the scene of the Feb. 21 accident in Malibu that he was deputy commissioner of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority's police anti-terrorism unit, detectives said Thursday.
A few minutes after the crash, two unidentified men arrived at the scene, flashing badges and saying they were from "homeland security," according to Sheriff's Department officials.
Deputies allowed the men into the accident scene, where they spoke to Stefan Eriksson before leaving, Sgt. Phil Brooks said.
Sheriff's officials on Thursday said they now want to question them.
"We would like the public's help with any information about these men or the crash," Brooks said.
They are also looking into the transit organization to see what connection, if any, it has to the case. Brooks said detectives believe the two men from "homeland security" received their badges from the transit authority.
No one was injured when the rare Ferrari Enzo traveling 162 mph smashed into a power pole on Pacific Coast Highway. But the case continues to generate interest because the Ferrari is one of only 400 built, and detectives have struggled to understand what happened.
Eriksson told investigators he was a passenger in the Ferrari and that the driver was a man named Dietrich, who fled from the scene. But officials have been skeptical, noting that Eriksson had a bloody lip and the only blood found was on the driver's side airbag.
On Thursday, Brooks said detectives now doubt initial reports that the Ferrari was racing a Mercedes SLR. Detectives had interviewed a second man who said he was a passenger in a Mercedes SLR that he said was racing the Ferrari at the time.
"There was no Mercedes SLR," Brooks said. "Simply, there was a Ferrari with two people in it. One of these men was driving."
Just as murky is Eriksson's connection to the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority.
The organization is a privately run nonprofit that has agreements with Monrovia and Sierra Madre to provide bus rides for disabled residents.
On its website, the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority lists its address as 148 E. Lemon Ave. in Monrovia. The location is Homer's Auto Service, an auto repair shop.
A transit authority bus was parked in one of its driveways, but nothing on the storefront indicated it was a headquarters for the agency. Inside, a young woman, who declined to give her name, said she was a dispatcher for the transit authority. She telephoned someone she said was an agency official, who declined to be interviewed.
According to the website, the organization also has its own police department with a chief, detectives and marked police cruisers. Sheriff's investigators said Eriksson told deputies that he was deputy commissioner of the department's anti-terrorism unit.
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S.