Motorist’s electric vehicle that killed boy, 5, had ‘no faults’, court hears

An electric vehicle which killed a child had “no faults”, a court has heard, after the driver claimed it had accelerated unexpectedly while parked.

Ashenafei Demissie was sitting in his parked Volkswagen ID.4 outside his flat near London Bridge in south London, when the car moved forward at speed and killed five-year-old Fareer Amir.

The collision also seriously injured Mr Demissie’s own son Raphael, 12, as well as damaging five other parked vehicles during the incident in November 2022.

Demissie, 53, has denied causing death and serious injury by careless driving, claiming that the all-electric car had “moved on its own accord”.

However, giving evidence at the Old Bailey, traffic collision expert Mark Still said that an examination and testing of the vehicle had found no issues with the steering, braking system, suspension or electrics of the 2021-plated Volkswagen.

Listing his findings, he told jurors: “ I found no faults with the operations of the vehicle, including the steering, acceleration and braking. I was unable to make the vehicle move without any intentional driving moves. You have to make an action to make it move. The vehicle’s braking system would override the cruise control function.”

He added that a test of the accelerator and braking pedal found that the braking system overrode the accelerating system if both were pressed at the same time.

“I was unable to make the car accelerate without a driver,” Mr Still said. “The evidence found at the scene supported initial account, which is that the Volkswagen was driven forward and struck the five cars.”

He added: “It was most likely caused by acceleration.

The court had previously heard that Fareed had been walking home from primary school with his mother, Maryam Lemulu, before they stopped to talk to Demissie, who was a close family friend. During his police interview, Mr Demissie said that he had spoken out of the window about the spicy school lunch and had offered Fareed a sweet, who subsequently came to stand in front of the car.

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“He was by the sensor in front of the car and suddenly the car jumped. I believe the car jumped because Fareed had triggered the sensor,” he told officers. “I have been driving for 21 years and have never seen anything like it. I’ve never experienced any mechanical problems 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.”

“I don’t know what happened. My wife just ran and said, ‘What happened?’”

After the incident occurred, Fareed was taken to hospital where he died of multiple traumatic injuries. Giving evidence in court, Mr Demissie broke down in tears as he told jurors he had been feeling “happy” before the tragedy.

Before the accident, he told jurors that Fareed had seemed “excited” and had 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 you doing anything physically to the car?”

Mr Still replied: “No.”

The officer 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 witness said that he had concluded the collision was a “case of pedal misapplication”, adding: “The fault alleged could not be replicated.”

Mr Williams said: “What caused the car to move forward?”

Mr Still replied: “Input by the driver was the only way I could make the car move. No faults were identified on the car that would make it move.”

Mr Demissie denies the charges and the trial continues.