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news
Lamborghini involved in 125mph crash which killed cyclist in Avignon, France (Olivier Jorba)Questions asked as speeding suspended driver kills French cyclist in “125mph” hit-and-run crash after hiring Lamborghini without valid driving licence
Questions have been raised in France after a motorist was able to hire a powerful Lamborghini sports car, despite not holding a valid driving licence, before hitting and killing a cyclist while speeding.
The fatal collision took place at around 1pm on 1 September in Avignon, in southwestern France’s Provence region, as the 25-year-old motorist was driving at “high speed” on the departmental RD907 road outside the city often used by cyclists, and at “well over” the 70kph speed limit, according to French police and several witnesses.
The driver then violently collided with the cyclist, a 51-year-old high school maintenance worker, dragging him for several metres and killing him instantly. Some reports, including from the victim’s family, have claimed that the motorist was travelling at 200kph (around 125mph) at the time of the shocking crash.
The 25-year-old, along with his 16-year-old sister, who was a passenger in the vehicle, abandoned the damaged Lamborghini and fled the scene on foot, TF1 reports.
Avignon : une Lamborghini tue un cycliste, le conducteur et sa passagère en garde à vue
➡️ https://t.co/OFqxriwY04 pic.twitter.com/nxlktAPQ8v— Le Parisien | faits divers (@leparisien_fdiv) September 2, 2024
However, later that afternoon, the motorist – who according to local reports is “well known” to police and has previous convictions mostly related to drugs-related offences – handed himself in voluntarily to a police station in Avignon, where he tested negative for drugs and alcohol, though toxicological analysis is currently being carried out to ascertain whether he was under the influence at the time of the crash.
Nevertheless, it was also revealed that the motorist had hired the car without a driving licence, which is currently suspended until December following a previous unspecified driving offence.
Earlier this week, the 25-year-old was charged with involuntary manslaughter, with two aggravating circumstances: hit and run and driving despite the suspension of his driving licence. He remains in custody and under French law faces a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a €150,000 fine.
His 16-year-old sister has also been charged with failing to assist a person in danger.
> Calls for tougher action against people who drive while banned
The tragic collision, and the circumstances around it, has since fuelled speculation in France surrounding the means by which the motorist was able to hire a car, let alone a powerful sports car such as a Lamborghini, despite being banned from driving.
Reports suggest that the 25-year-old did not hire the car through a rental company’s website, but through social media, and in doing so used his existing licence without disclosing that it was suspended.
According to Michel Benezra, a lawyer specialising in road traffic law, the motorist may quite easily have misled the hire car company by simply handing them his physical licence.
“A driver who has had his driving license suspended, but who has not immediately handed it over to the authorities, keeps his licence physically, even if he does not have the right to drive,” Benezra told TF1.
“And from there, he will be able to go and rent a vehicle with complete peace of mind, since the rental company will not have access to information that is confidential.”
However, other theories have linked the rental to an illegal Europe-wide luxury hire car practice, in which high-value sports cars – most likely stolen – are transported across the continent, registered with false number plates, and hired out cash-in-hand for large sums.
According to La Provence, the Lamborghini involved in the fatal collision in Avignon had a German licence plate.
“But all this is very well known,” a local garage owner, who sells luxury cars, told the newspaper. “You just have to go out and open your eyes. In big cities or even elsewhere, who has not been confronted with these scenes of big sports cars parading in the streets or on the roads with drivers who do not hesitate to block traffic?
“Do you really believe that these are cars kindly rented in accordance with the standards from a licenced dealer? We have to face the truth.
“We are dealing with irresponsible people who defy all laws, neglect all safety rules, and drive at full speed.”
Rachid (photo supplied by his family)
Earlier this week, Renaud Muselier, president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, paid tribute to the cyclist killed, a 51-year-old known as Rachid, who worked at the Frédéric-Mistral high school in Avignon.
“Today, we lose a man known and appreciated by the students of the establishment as well as by his colleagues, his death affects the entire Avignon educational community,” Muselier said in a statement.
“On behalf of the Region, I offer my condolences to his family and send my thoughts to his work colleagues, as well as to the high school students who worked with him on a daily basis and appreciated him deeply!”
A fundraiser to support Rachid’s family has so far raised almost €5,000.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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42 comments
My sympathies are with the family of the victim. How someone with a suspended licence was able to hire any car, let alone a high performance one, needs to be investigated. Surely a life ban from driving wouldn't be inappropriate? It's not clear if the driver would still drive anyway mind.
The hire company should lose their business as well. Let's get rid of the ones that put profit before legality.
As is mentioned in the article, this is most certainly not a 'normal' rental from a regular company.
In most major cities in the EU you have shady firms who rent out luxury cars against cash (and an huge guarantee in cash). Mostly, these have license plates from another country so 'live' checks by police are impossible.
The cars themselves may be stolen or are part of a criminal scheme in which they are registered to shady companies with bankrupt directors (straw men) who sublet them to other companies who then rent them out. Essentially it's about fraud and money laundering.
Why don't authorities take action, you ask? Now that's a VERY good question.
I hope that the person who hired it to him gets the same sentence, as they are equally culpable.
Killed by a large weapon traveling at 125mph... I just hope the end was instant and there was no pain. RIP. F* the driver, he deserves the full 10 years.
RIP brother.
Either
1) the law is inadequate in France when it comes to companies who hire out cars not being able to verify the user's licence is valid
or
2) the hire company didn't do their job properly
Given the criminal's own previous convictions, along with fleeing the scene, it would seem that it is unlikely any punishment will be usefull other than a long time behind bars.
Which is why I advocate for the criminal to also lose their taste buds and libido in serious cases like this.
Hired through social media, so maybe no company (other than the platform itself) was involved at all.
Edit: I recall a similar story recently, I think also in France, where a young man had hired something like a Mercedes AMG cash-in-hand with similar consequences.
What, so put them in a time machine and age them up to their early fifties?
Maybe 80 or 90 might work better.
I recall a TV programme following Ibiza police, and they were claiming evidence of these shady short-term supercar rental businesses being heavily linked with drug trafficking across Europe. In part, a cash heavy business to launder illegal funds and simultaneously providing high powered mule vehicles with teflon responsibility between driver and owner.
Not saying that's the case in this tragic situation, but a solid reason to be skeptical of them in general.
The problem is, the rental company (a normal one, that is) will take a look at the license. But they do not have access to a central database to check the validity, only authorities can do that.
In Belgium, if your license is revoked, you have to physically deposit it with the court. But guys who see it coming simply declare a 'loss' to the police a week before sentencing. They deposit their new license but keep the old.
The rental company has no way of knowing. Of course, if there is a police check or an accident then the driver is toast and any insurance is void. But that's little consolation to the person they ran over. People who do this simply don't care about anything.
Over here, there's talk of installing an app that will scan the license and do an online validity check. If there's a problem, the engine just won't start.
I don't see much of a problem with having a publicly available passport validity service. It could be designed so that it requires a few details from the passport and simply returns the dates that it is valid between so it wouldn't be leaking PII.
From what I see, it appears that Belgium has a very lax attitude towards road safety. I recall that Belgians were the most aggressive drivers who insisted on tailgating as they rushed down to the Med. It appears that Belgians are the worst drivers.
Corporate manslaughter type charges for the car rental company? Someone f***ed up on their due diligence…
I don't think this is Hertz or Avis, I don't think there is any "corporate", nor any diligence.
Living in West Yorkshire, we have a massive problem with people hiring out powerful sports cars, particularly for weddings and other celebrations, and driving in a massively anti-social way. Speeding, blocking key roads so that people can film themselves with the cars, the hirers letting uninsured and unlicensed friends take the wheel, revving the engines in suburban neighbourhoods late at night.
These hire places are notorious for their lack of interest in ensuring their cars are used in a sociable manner. It is also alleged that they have 'interesting' tax arrangements.....
I hope that we see a massive crackdown on these practices here in the UK before we see such a tragedy on our streets.
Happens in other countries too. It seems to be a Moroccan/Turkish thing.
Whilst there is a broad spectrum of genders, religions and races involved in terrible and antisocial driving in West Yorkshire, with regards hiring powerful sports cars, this is most associated here with men of South Asian heritage. In particular, there are huge issues in the roads surrounding wedding halls catering for traditional muslim weddings, with the grooms and their entourage arriving in these hired cars. A traditional wedding can last several days, with different events and ceremonies, which compounds matters.
This sort of thing is a running joke on motoring forums. There was a time that seeing a high-end sports car was exciting. These days, thanks to youtubers and rental companies theyve become a bit tawdry.
Marcus Brigstocke used to have a joke along the same lines, something like "When I was young and you saw a stretch limousine you would be trying to peer inside to see what film star or rockstar was using it, now when you see one you just think oh there's another bunch of slappers on a hen night."
The cars have become objectively(?) tackier too (in my subjective view, at any rate). I suppose we should be grateful though. It makes not buying one because of environmental considerations a lot less hard to accept.
You're not wrong. They look like toys, mainly because they're designed to appeal to the "inner child" of people, predominantly men, who haven't grown up.
Motoring forums are a sick joke.
Perhaps one day a few videos of brick-through-the-windscreen / homemade 'stinger' multiple punctures will go viral and those fuckers can learn that other people exist, and that it is time for them to grow up and drive in a less anti-social manner.
Any actual stats on this or are you just being subjectively racist?
Yes - see the front page of one local paper today:
https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/24565615.supercar-disruption...
Sorry couldn't get past 'Dick Lane' in the heading..
there is a "Cockin Lane" not too far from there.....
Dick Lane is Eastern Bradford.
Walton View Hotel/Six Acres is Southern Bradford - towards Drighlington:
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/council/the-6-acres-at-tong-residents-plagued-by-wedding-guests-revving-engines-and-setting-off-flares-at-new-walton-view-hotel-wedding-venue-4574152
I don't keep stats but live on a major road in Brussels with a crossroads a bit further and during weekends, when I hear engines revving, yelling and loud music and care to take a look out of my window, it's usually a wedding procession where people drive these obviously rented cars. Seems to be mainly a Turkish thing here.
Call it racist if you want but typically and without me keeping stats, this is what I see.
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