Motorist’s electric vehicle that killed boy, 5, had ‘no faults’, court hears
The electric vehicle that killed a child was found to have “no fault” after the driver claimed he accelerated unexpectedly while parked.
Ashenafei Demissie was sitting in his Volkswagen ID.4 parked outside his flat near London Bridge in South London when the car sped up and killed five-year-old Fareer Amir.
The collision also seriously injured Mr Demissie’s 12-year-old son Raphael and damaged five other vehicles parked at the time of the incident in November 2022.
Demissie, 53, denied causing death and serious injury through careless driving, claiming the all-electric car was “self-propelled”.
However, traffic collision expert Mark Still, who testified at the Old Bailey, said that in the examination and tests carried out on the vehicle, there were no problems with the steering, braking system, suspension or electrical parts of the Volkswagen with plate number 2021.
He told jurors of his findings: “I found no faults in the operation of the vehicle, including steering, acceleration and braking. I was unable to move the vehicle without any deliberate driving action. You have to perform an action to move it. The vehicle’s braking system will override the cruise control function.”
He added that a test on the accelerator and brake pedals found that the braking system overrides the acceleration system if both are pressed simultaneously.
“I couldn’t accelerate the car without the driver,” Mr. Still said. “Evidence found at the scene supported the initial statement that the Volkswagen was driven forward and struck five vehicles.”
He added: “It was probably due to acceleration.
The court previously heard Fareed walked home from primary school with his mother, Maryam Lemulu, before stopping to speak to close family friend Demissie. During police interrogation, Mr Demissie said he talked through the window about spicy school lunch and offered Fareed a sweet, who then came to the front of the car.
“He was in front of the car next to the censor and the car suddenly jumped. I think the car jumped because Fareed triggered the censor,” he told officers. “I’ve been driving for 21 years and I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve never had mechanical problems before.”
“It was just like a moment of madness. I don’t know exactly what happened. I tried to brake. It was like it was too late. It was just like a moment, a second, whoosh and bounce.”
“I don’t know what happened. My wife ran and said ‘what happened?'”
Fareed, who was hospitalized after the incident, died due to multiple traumatic injuries. Giving evidence in court, Mr Demissie broke down in tears as he told jurors he felt “happy” before the tragedy.
Before the crash, she told jurors Fareed appeared “excited” and called him “uncle Ash”.
Questioning Mr Still, prosecutor Michael Williams asked: “Were you able to find anything that caused the car to move forward without doing anything physically to it?”
Mr. Still replied: “No.”
The officer described a “phenomenon” related to several previous crashes in which drivers claimed their vehicles were accelerating even though they believed they were braking.
He said: “They put their foot on the wrong pedal. As a result, the car will start to move. Since the driver thinks his foot is on the brake, he will probably press harder to stop it… It goes out of control.”
The witness concluded that the crash was “a case of pedal misapplication”, adding: “It was not possible for the alleged malfunction to be repeated.”
Mr Williams said: “What caused the car to move forward?”
Mr Still replied: “The only way I could move the car was through input from the driver. No faults were detected in the car that would have caused it to move.”
Mr Demissie denies the charges and the trial continues.
