Electric car that killed boy, 5, did not ‘move on its own’, court hears
A five-year-old boy was killed after an electric car surged forward that was in perfect working order and did not move on its own, a court heard.
The young boy, Fareed Amir, was left with fatal head injuries when Ashenafei Demissie’s Volkswagen ID.4 suddenly accelerated into him outside a block of flats near London Bridge Station.
Demissie, 53, is on trial at the Old Bailey, charged with causing the death of Fareed and seriously injuring his own 12-year-old son.
The defendant had been parked outside his flat in Borough, south London, before the collision in November 2022.
Jurors were told that the two boys were playing outside when the car moved forward, hitting them before crashing into five parked vehicles.
In a police interview read in court, cab driver Demissie said that on the day of the incident, he had returned home after picking up his younger son from school.
When he drove into the car park outside his home, Fareed, his mother Rosa and the defendant’s older boy stood around his car.
He said he bought sweets for the children and offered one to Fareed, but Rosa refused.
Demissie claimed that a fault in the car caused the vehicle to accelerate unexpectedly.
He said: ‘Suddenly the car jumped. I believe the car jumped because Fareed triggered the sensor. I had never had any mechanical problems with the car before.
‘Just like a moment of madness. I don’t know what happened exactly. I tried to brake. It was like too late. It was just like a moment, second, whoosh and jump.’
The defendant said his wife had tried to help their son before he told her to go to Fareed.
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As he covered his 12-year-old son so he would not see his injury, the boy told him: ‘Daddy hurts, daddy hurts, broken, daddy hurts.’
Giving evidence in court, Demissie broke down in tears as he told jurors he had been feeling ‘happy’ before the tragedy.
Before the accident, he told the court that Fareed had seemed ‘excited’ and had called him ‘Uncle Ash.’
His defence asserted that Demissie did not press the accelerator and the car ‘moved of its own accord.’
However, on Wednesday, a Met Police traffic collision investigator said it was a case of ‘pedal misapplication’ by the defendant, and he found no evidence of a fault.
Mark Still, who examined the Volkswagen in December 2022, outlined his conclusions in court today.
He told jurors: ‘I was unable to find any defect that contributed to the collision and I was unable to make the car accelerate without the driver driving.
‘I found no faults with the operation of the vehicle, including steering, brake and acceleration.
‘I was unable to make the vehicle move without any additional input. You had to make an action to make the vehicle move.’
Mr Still also told prosecutor Michael Williams he did not find anything that caused the car to move forward without doing anything physically to the car.
He described a ‘phenomenon’ relating to a number of previous collisions in which drivers had claimed their vehicles had accelerated when they believed they had been braking.
He said: ‘They have put their foot on the wrong pedal. The result of that is the car will start moving.
‘Because the driver thinks they have their foot on the brake, they will likely press harder to make it stop…It spirals out of control.’
The officer concluded that the collision was a ‘case of pedal misapplication’, adding that ‘the fault alleged could not be replicated.’
Under cross-examination, the officer agreed that he was not a computer expert or software engineer.
However, he said he considered whether there could have been a mechanical failure, which would include an electrical fault.
Demissie has denied the charges against him and the trial was adjourned until Thursday.
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