Fatal Ferrari Crash in Sardinia

Whether any of us want to admit it or not, I think there is a bit of a "herd mentality" that comes into play when you are driving in a group like this -- particularly if the group is supposed to stay together. Most of us (on our own) would not in a million years cross a solid line to pass a camper in that circumstance. That said, when your the 20th (or whatever) car in a pack of 50, and everybody is passing, and that's the only way to stay with the group, you might do it, carefully, in that circumstance.

Everybody was trying to make the pass safely -- only the Ferrari guy was driving noticeably faster than everyone else, stayed in the wrong lane far, far longer than necessary, continued to stay in the wrong lane and trying to pass when it was obvious there wasn't sufficient space (even before the Lambo moved further left).

 

My perception from the video is that the Lamborghini was driving steadily over the white center line because he was eager to overtake but driving too close to the camper to see if overtaking was safe. By moving over a bit to the left and staying there he was able to see again the incoming traffic.

Others will argue that he was over the white center line because he already had started his overtaking maneuver.

This is where the lawyers come in (and the Lamborghini driver seems to have very deep pockets)

 

Exactly, which is why I stay away from packs for safety and being a lone wolf;-)

I was invited for a Cavallino article in June 2000 to an FNA official touring rally in the Adirondacks hills ( NE USA) in June 2000. We were based on lake Bolton at the Sagamore resort. I was given a 550 the first day and a 360 the next (IIRC) and I stayed away from any silly behavior. It was a smart quite well behaved group for the most part...but it is telling that FNA soon gave up organizing these; too much legal exposure and it only takes one idiot....and yes herd stupidity is a clear human pattern in any and all circumstances.

 

Laws, of course may vary from region to region. I'm just following the letter of the law, in my case, California. Your local region may have different laws.

Section 21755 - Overtaking and passing another vehicle upon right only under safe conditions (a) The driver of a vehicle may overtake and pass another vehicle upon the right only under conditions permitting that movement in safety.

Or

Section 22107. No person shall turn a vehicle from a direct course or move right or left upon a roadway until such movement can be made with reasonable safety and then only after the giving of an appropriate signal in the manner provided in this chapter in the event any other vehicle may be affected by the movement.


The moment the Lambo tried to make another illegal pass (with not signaling AND not checking blind spot), he took responsibility. If you disagree, then I think you're arguing one is allowed to merge into any lane without signaling anytime, at whatever speed. This seems unreasonable to me. Maybe that is your style of driving in your area, as I said, laws differ by region. Me? I always yield to faster traffic before I switch into their lane (or at the very least be at the same speed.)

Let me put it another way. If you run a red light and hit a car speeding while crossing the intersection, are you absolved of running the red light? Does the "but the other car is illegally going 200mph (hell, throw in swerving from side to side - driving recklessly) help you in any way?

If I was in the jury, I would say nope. I would blame both. One party violated speeding, drove recklessly) and the other party did ALL that PLUS clearly hit the other car.

Did the Ferrari 'rear-end' the Lambo?

Nope.

The Lambo hit the Ferrari (from the side, because they didn't see it obviously). Can't dispute this, doesn't matter if the Ferrari was speeding or being reckless. The Lambo had no business being there and will be left holding the bag.

 

The Lambo's owner will most likely say they were already in the act of passing, which I agree with (they were past the center median.)

The problem is the Lambo committed to continuing to pass when it was unsafe to do so.

The Ferrari is guilty of

1. Speeding
2. Illegal passing

The Lambo is guilty of

1. Speeding
2. Illegal passing
3. Not signaling
4. Not checking blind spot
5. Hitting the Ferrari

 

equivalent of 'kiss my ass' but it has a different purpose in this instance - more like holy **** !

 

Paul, I guess you’ll have to show me what law allows for passing a car not only over a solid center line but also using the opposite shoulder and solid line because the Lamborghini was right in the middle of the road when the Ferrari approached and tried to overtake him along with the camper.

Image Unavailable, Please Login


Even using the law you cited the Ferrari failed at “Overtaking and passing another vehicle upon right only under safe conditions. It very obviously was not safe conditions with a car still in the center of the road, without adequate space to renter traffic, and using the opposing shoulder as extra space to try and squeeze past a car already impeding the passing lane.

 

well we can parse this out ad infinitum, but like i said ydy, there is only one of the perps left alive, and he has deep pockets.
somebody will need to pay, and it will mostly fall to him. whether its fair or not.

he did not end his life, but he ruined it.

 

when i lived there and/or drove there, i was always hyper aware of the casual road manners.

one of my least favorite was the roads where there are 3 lines - 1 going each direction and then a middle lane for overtaking....which i always called 'the chicken lane'.
very hair raising

 

Exactly this, although I call it the suicide lane. You’ve got to be hyper aware when driving on roads like these, particularly when surrounded by other guys driving loose with the rules and courtesies. When I’m on track I’m always overly cautious with other drivers and they usually have some knowledge or driving abilities. On public roads it’s even worse and you’ve got to expect (not anticipate) the dumbest thing is what another driver will do. If you’re in a group like this one and there’s a guy all over the road and doing sprint passing in a suicide lane it’s prudent to give him a very wide berth. Sometimes passing just isn’t worth the risk…

 

it seems to me that a lot of these less experienced drivers act like its a video game - you crash, push the reset button, and start again.
and modern cars give people a much greater sense of safety than warranted.

i know you race some vintage machinery, so you know there is nothing to focus the mind like driving at speed in a vehicle that has no mods, no airbags, no abs, and you ARE the crush zone !

 

Yes, I geek/nerd out on this; thanks for indulging me. I want to keep myself honest, so I rewatched the video a few times and revised my assessment.
It all depends on where the Ferrari was when the Lambo crossed the median line.

One is not allowed to pass a vehicle already in the act of passing. So, if the Ferrari was not in the left lane before the Lambo crossed the line back to the left, I agree the Ferrari was in the wrong.

However, if the Ferrari was already in the left lane, the Lambo should not have attempted another pass since a car was already in the act of passing (the same law =

Vehicle Code 21753
Except when passing on the right is permitted, the driver of an overtaken vehicle shall safely move to the right-hand side of the highway in favor of the overtaking vehicle after an audible signal or a momentary flash of headlights by the overtaking vehicle, and shall not increase the speed of his or her vehicle until completely passed by the overtaking vehicle.


Where the Ferrari was when the Lambo started veering left is pivotal to answering the question.

So, my final call must be inconclusive until I see more footage.

Kind regards.

 

In the video it's clear that, the whole time the Ferrari was in the wrong lane, going faster than anybody else, at least 3 cars did that pass -- the lambo was at least the 3rd car. First there was a blue or black car, then a white car, and finally the lambo -- despite at least 3 cars doing that pass in plain sight of the Ferrari, and the lane being partially blocked the entire time by the blue Lambo, the Ferrari approached as if there were no other cars on the road. No excuse.

In theory, the Lambo should have noticed the Ferrari coming up in the wrong lane, but he had to look at: 1) the camper, 2) the other 2 cars in front of him that he was following around the truck; 3) on-coming traffic in the opposing lane -- that's a lot to keep track of in the moment. He had no reason whatsoever to expect anybody would be stupid enough to come up from the rear, as if no other cars were there, in the lane that he was already halfway in.

 

Lots of blame to go around here, but I'm not throwing stones. Somewhere I have a video from my dashcam of my stupid 6 seconds that led to me splitting a pair of F250s on a 2-lane road. Look at the time in this video -- that guy went from "maybe I'll step on the gas" to dead in under 10 seconds.

Based on the thread, maybe the takeaway is "perhaps 600 HP cars shouldn't be rented to every random person with a thick wallet."

 

This is where I disagree.

The Lambo was over the line and already committed to overtaking the van.

In essence the red Ferrari was overtaking the Lambo who was already trying to overtake.

So Italian law will see this too as the fault.




May the Horse be with you

 

Watch it again in slow mo ....the Portofino was moving 'quite fast' he obviously saw the Lambo looking for a way past the camper van...at that point he has basically 3 main options whilst wondering what the Lambo would do:

A Lift off/brake then tuck in behind the Lambo and the Camper in the right hand lane and await his turn
B Lift off/brake then follow the Lambo through past the Camper in the left hand lane
C Keep the power in and hope the Lambo has seen him and would stay on right lane and let him through on the left.

Right at that crucial moment the Lambo made a small subtle move to the right as if to move back into the right lane ..the Porto MAY have thought the Lambo had seen him and was starting to give him space to pass on the left ..so in that split second... he kept his foot in or even accelerated harder to pass them both....

I am wondering if the Porto might have at some point 'flashed' the Lambo ? This can be interpreted in at least two different ways depending on where you driving and your own nationality,e.g

A I am coming through,stay in your lane / get out of my way.
B You go first i will follow you.

Anyhow R.I.P.

 

I think our main takeaway here is don't drive like a flipping idiots on public roads. This very sad turn of events will hopefully at least get us thinking about our driving habits. We don't get speeding tickets because the cops are a$$holes...We get them because we're the a$$holes driving too fast. And I'm certainly guilty at times.

 

Thanks @peterp, for your thoughts. In situations like this, I'm approaching it from a legal perspective and being clinically precise - California statutes. Your local laws may differ, and your assessment be correct.

It's not clear to me since the Ferrari is out of frame; for the sake of argument, let's assume you are correct: in California, the Lambo would then not be allowed to pass since the Ferrari was already in the act of passing FIRST (albeit illegally).

That is lousy driving; I could not agree with you more. However, poor decisions by the other driver do not absolve you if you hit them.

Your assertion that the Ferrari driver was driving stupidly (agreed, preaching to the choir) - but I've had many people do the same meander to me on the freeway. That's why I signal and check blind spots. Even though folks like to camp out in my blind spot (for minutes sometimes, we've all experienced this), I would be at fault if I side-swipe them.

****

Being cautious not to fall into reductio ad absurdum, imagine a car was illegally parked on the other side of the road. You cross the median illegally, go off the road, and hit said parked car (yes, we all agree that the other vehicle was illegally parked there.)

Are you absolved for hitting the illegally parked car on the opposite side of the road? (defense being "it shouldn't have been there?")

I don't think so, no matter how stupid/irresponsible the person illegally parking the car on the other side of the road was.

 

It all depends on this:
Image Unavailable, Please Login
If Ferrari was *already* in left lane, Lambo is making a pass when *another* car is already attempting to pass (a no no)

If the Ferrari was behind the car filming, then the opposite applies, and the Ferrari is in the wrong.

That's how I see it.

 

THIS! The Lambo was definitely going left/right/left/right which the Ferrari driver (mistakenly interpreted as them not going to pass) - I'm sure the prosecution will point this out. Any "leftward" jerk could be interpreted as the pass aborted. It certainly would to me. Though I would still not roll the dice. So don't take this as me absolving the Ferrari either, it is two folks that took a risk neither should have taken.

 

Even if the Ferrari was in the left lane to overtake the camera car he had space as he came upon the Lamborghini to duck back in behind traffic. He could plainly see the Lamborghini was obstructing the other lane and chose force a pass attempt anyhow. The Lamborghini had no reason or requirement to leave the lane clear as he was up the road and performing an overtake of his own. It isn’t as if a driver commands the overtake for unlimited vehicles regardless of how far apart they are just because he was first out for a pass…

 

Paul is trying to determine who has the right-of-way. Normally, it would be the car already in the lane. The issue I see is that’s not a legal lane for the car to be in to begin with as it is an opposing traffic lane.

I see two cars doing illegal things. “Normal” traffic rules don’t apply. It comes down to common sense and who displayed the least of it. Every car was overtaking one car at a time. The Ferrari tried to overtake 3 cars in one go. The Ferrari drove the least carefully/defensively and paid the ultimate price.

 

The Indian people in the Huracan Spyder are responsible.
30sec before the crash they have almost killed a biker when passing the "camera car"

Then as mentioned above, the Indians moved to the right to let the Portofino pass, only to move to the left immediately after and cause the crash..

We don't need Indian people in Italia, neither for tourism, nor to build the best cars in the world, nor to sell them.

 

We don't need racists on Ferrarichat. 3 day site ban.

 

The Ferrari driver was responsible to avoid the crash. But did the opposite and took a very high risk.
He had best overview as coming from behind, at least a better view than the Lambodriver through his small mirrors.
Since the lane was not clear - also forbidden by the white line - there is no justification for any passing.
Open your eyes, there wasn't any place for 3 cars at once on that spot.
If a Lambo drivers go crazy zickzack ahead, you should stay cool/patient and not follow or top reckless driving.