INLSA
Murder accused Desen Naidoo, who is on trial for allegedly causing a crash that killed another motorist, leaves the Durban Regional Court after his case was adjourned. Picture: Doctor Ngcobo
A police accident reconstruction expert has testified that a Durban businessman, who is charged with murder in connection with a horror crash, was speeding excessively when the accident happened.
Desen Naidoo, a motor racing enthusiast, is on trial for murder before Durban regional magistrate Thomas Nhleko.
He is charged with the murder of Mervin Sungreem, 31, who died after an accident which occurred at the intersection of North Coast Road and Effingham Road in May 2007.
The State alleges that Naidoo, driving a modified Chevrolet Lumina, jumped a red robot and crashed into Sungreem’s Polo Classic as it turned into North Coast Road.
The force of the impact was so severe that the Polo was ripped in half and the car’s engine and gearbox detached itself from the vehicle’s body.
The Lumina crashed into a wall and its engine caught on fire.
Modifications on the Lumina included a supercharger.
Naidoo has claimed that, relating to the accident, he suffers from retrograde amnesia, which is the loss of memory about events before a traumatic incident.
He also denied that he was speeding.
Yesterday, police Captain Jacques Beukes, an accident reconstruction expert, testified that according to his speed calculations Naidoo’s Lumina would have been travelling at 130km/h in a 70km zone when it crashed into the Polo.
This was based on calculations in which he determined the angles of approach of the vehicles and the angles of departure after the impact.
Beukes’s evidence was subjected to rigorous cross- examination and Naidoo’s advocate, Jimmy Howse, said Beukes’s calculations were “hopelessly inaccurate”.
Howse added that Beukes had failed to take into account the significant weight of the Lumina’s modifications and sound system which would have affected its speed.
In response, Beukes said he did not know of the additional features at the time he did his calculations.
Beukes also admitted that if Naidoo’s car had been travelling at 70km/h, he still would not have been able to avoid the accident.
Earlier in the trial, motorist Christopher John Beng-ston testified that he saw a white Lumina, believed to be Naidoo’s car, on the day of the crash driving on North Coast Road.
Bengston said the car had attracted his attention because it was being driven very fast.
Naidoo is out on bail.
The case will continue today.
