A British banking executive is seeking answers from Ferrari regarding an alleged brake defect in its supercars, which he claims led to his catastrophic 2015 crash in Hong Kong. Robert Ebert, who was driving a £400,000 Ferrari 458 Spider, was jailed for death-by-dangerous-driving after his vehicle struck and killed a car park attendant, Ku Lap-Chi.
Mr Ebert maintains that despite slamming on the brakes, his car “refused to stop.” His lawyers have now lodged a pre-action disclosure application at the High Court in London to compel Ferrari to disclose when it “would or should have known” about the alleged braking fault. Mr Ebert stated to the Daily Mail: “No one wants to drive a 200mph car that doesn’t stop.”
The action follows similar claims in the United States, where seven former owners lodged a group legal action alleging “a life-threatening defect” with the brakes. One claimant, Jeffrey Rose, claimed his Ferrari 488 GTB failed to stop and he “frantically released his seat belt, opened the driver’s side door and jumped out…just before it entered the 20-foot deep pond behind his residence and sank to the bottom.”
Ferrari denies all allegations but appears to have settled the US case out of court.
Since Mr Ebert’s trial, Ferrari has issued “safety recalls” for certain 458 and 488 models in the US, EU, and China, citing issues that “may lead to a total loss of braking capability, and result in an accident.”
Ferrari maintains that Mr Ebert’s crash was caused by human error, stating: “The technical findings presented during the Hong Kong trial — including confirmation of sufficient brake fluid — objectively demonstrated that the recall issue was not relevant to the incident caused by Mr Ebert.” The company added: “Simply put: this was a case of human error, not a technical fault.”
Two other UK drivers, company director Tony Bohana and accountant Ricardo Du Bignon, have also claimed their Ferrari 458s experienced sudden brake failure, resulting in separate crashes.
Source: Daily Mail
