The driver pleaded not guilty to a "dangerous driving" charge.
7 News / YouTubeAn Australian court saw police evidence this week that showed the driver of a Lamborghini who struck two teenager girls in 2019, killing one of them, blaming the crash on the use of sport mode and traction control being turned off.
According to Australia’s ABC News, driver Alexander Campbell was leaving a car show in June 2019 when he lost control of the car and struck two young pedestrians. One, 15-year-old Sophia Naismith, was killed in the collision, while another then-15-year-old pedestrian survived with leg and foot injuries. The car then continued into a restaurant. The driver was arrested later that night.
Campbell claimed in a police interview filmed the night of the crash and shown in court this week that he had lost control because he was in a sport setting with the traction c0ntrol off:
“It lost traction and that was it. I normally put it in like a sport mode and the traction control wasn’t on when I drive it. It’s powerful, it’s not like a normal car.
You don’t have to do anything in that car, like I literally was coming down the corner the other day and it was cold tires and the thing just slid… and you can’t stop it.”
A camera seized from the car reportedly showed the driver both turning off the electronic stability control and moving to a sport setting. In a trial that began recently, five witnesses reported seeing the driver slide through a busy intersection earlier in the same night.
Luke Youlden, a part-time racing driver in the Australian Supercars series who also works as an instructor, told the courts as an expert witness that the car “would not have lost control by itself while driving in a straight line at [32 MPH].” With a not guilty plea already previously submitted, the trial will continue.
Keyword: Lamborghini Driver Blames Sport Mode and Disabling of Traction Control in Crash Killing Teen