Off Topic ForumThis is the place for mature discussions not necessarily related to cars. This is however also moderated and only registred members are allowed to post. No religion and no vicious attacks.
I think it's rather amusing, especially Kims version of the story.
I'm sure you didn't do it on purpose and so don't have videos of it actually happening.... or do you ?
Guys, look at the twists and turns of this. Now they call me a cyber terrorist :-)
Its US against THEM now. Enjoy the funny picture modification that have been posted on our Forum.
Wow Kimble it really have gotten out of hand. I cannot vbeleive how media twist the sttories but the most frightning thing I read was certain ISP block people that are accessing your website. That is totally unacceptable
But nice TV programs Aren't there anything more important happening in Belgium than Kim visiting
I came to Belgium a few weeks ago to help one of my friends & business partners from Hong Kong, a property Investor, to look at a few Buildings which are for sale and could be transformed into boutique hotels and serviced appartments. He was planning to invest over 50 million euros in Belgium because of my advice. After a few months of research my team had identified Antwerp to be a hotspot for investments. The restructering of Antwerps infrastructure, the good price/value ratio and the high standard of living and business were the main parameters to look for property there. I believe Antwerp has a great potential and will generate good returns for property investors in the future. Especially in the field of exclusive serviced appartments, which are not yet developed in Antwerp.
After spending some time in Antwerp I decided to start looking for a home there and launch a venture capital fund which would invest in belgian startup companies. The only people I knew in Antwerp were Gumball comrades. Successful businessmen who meet once a year at the famous Gumball 3000 rally.
At the same time I launched the Ultimate Rally. My own version of an competitive street racing event, to be held in the summer of 2006. After opening this Forum we got plenty of visitors from Belgium and I decided to meet some of them. One of these members was Phil(BE), a big fan of street racing events like Gumball 3000.
One evening my girlfriend from Helsinki was visiting me and we decided to have dinner at a chinese restaurant in the city of Lier, close to where Phil lives. After Dinner my girlfriend asked me if we could drive to the coast. I called Phil and asked him if he would like to be our navigatior and guide us to Knogge. He agreed and arrived 30 minutes later with another member of this board, Bramos, in his silver Mercedes SLK. What happened then is known on this Forum.
I am not going to justify what we did. For me, coming from a country without speed limits, this was normal Sunday night driving. Nothing worth mentioning. I am for sure a rebell and know how to enjoy my life, including driving, but I always take responsibility for my actions. Thats why I am going to see the Belgium police next week and I will pay the fines for my actions and thats it, case closed.
Now comes the interesting part. Phil's accident in Kessel. I called Phil and told him that I am meeting with a friend in Maastricht and Phil asked me if I would like to meet him before in Kessel. He just moved into his new appartment there, which he wanted to show me and I thought: Well lets make Phil happy and pay him a little visit. When I arrived in Kessel at around 5pm I met Phil at the townsign so that he could show me the way.
My fuel tank was almost empty and I asked Phil to bring me to a gas station before we drive to his home. I told him to drive slowly. I was not interested in speeding at bright daylight in some Belgium town. Phil drove infront of me and decided to go a little bit faster then permitted. I kept my cool and activated cruise control: 50kmh max. Phil realised that I wasnt interested in speeding and reduced his speed to 50kmh aswell. I followed him in 50 meters distance. All of a sudden, in a slight left turn a person was standing in the middle of the street. For some reason that person did not look to Phils direction and continued passing the street. Phil had to react in a split second and passed the woman on the left, hitting her with his right mirror. She was standing there for a few seconds and then fell on the ground. From my perspektive it did not look like a serious accident at all. I did not even expect the person to have any injuries whatsoever. The person was surrounded by a few bystanders and Phil ran there to assist with helping.
Here is what I told the police about this accident:
(By the way, the cops also saw the Gumball show on TV. Some younger policemen at the station were obviously fans of Gumball and one of them admitted of using a Gumball photo from my website as his computer background. Anyway, that was the reason why the officer was asking me if we were racing).
ranslation:
Officer: You were a witness from an accident happened today 2 oktober in Kessel, in this accident a pedestrian was hit by a car, what have you seen at that moment?
Me: I was following Phil's car and we were heading to a gas station. Suddenly there was a woman in the middle of the road. I saw that she was stopping in the middle of the road. The woman was fiddling around and was confused, It looked liked she was going to stay in the middle so the car could safely pass by, then she suddenly continued her way and Philippe had to make a brute outswing to the left otherwise he would have hit her frontally.
Officer: From which side of the road did the women came?
Me: From the leftside
Officer: The women was found 30 meters from a zebra-crossover, however there were witnesses that declared that she was ON the zebra-crossover?
Me: I did not see any zebra-crossover, the women wasn’t in the neighborhood of any zebra-crossover.
Officer: What was your speed at the moment of the accident and what was Philippe’s speed who was driving in front of you?
Me: I used my cruise-control to drive the maximum 50 kmh speedlimit. Philippe was 5O meters in front of me doing the same speed as me.
Officer: Did you see how she was hit?
Me: Philippe bumped her with his right outside mirror. The pedestrian still stood there for 2 seconds and then she fell down on the road. Thanks to Philippe’s quick reaction he passed her and didn’t brake, otherwise the women would have been hit frontally and her injuries could have been a lot worse.
Officer: Was Philippe’s car moved when the Policemen arrived or did he stopped on the spot of the accident?
Me: Philippe jumped out of the car and ran to the women immediately, a few minutes later the Policemen arrived, he didn’t move his car. When the Police arrived Philippe went to his car and brought his camera to my car to film the whole situation to use as evidence. I was filming but the Police asked me to stop filming, I was mad and filmed myself in my car making some practical jokes which I now realize weren’t so appropriate. This was the reason why I took the disc out of the camera at the policesstation, I was afraid that this footage could reach the public and hurt or even damage my image and reputation.
Officer: I asked you to join us to the station so that the case could be fully investigated did you have any offenses against this?
Me: No
Officer: In the questioning room you showed me some footage on the camera showing the victim on the ground, a few minutes later after leaving you alone, the disc in the camera was gone. Why did you do this?
Me: I was afraid that these videos could be shown to the public.
Officer: 21h4O you were asked if we could search you for the disc, you allowed this and we found the disc in your wool hat.
Me: Ok
Officer: I ask you were you racing or not?
Me: We were not racing and drove the normal allowed speed, Philippe’s car was parked very close to the victim, if we would have driven at high speeds there would have been skidmarks and Philippe’s car would be much further down the road.
Officer: How long will you stay in Belgium?
Me: Beginning of next week I leave to The Netherlands
Officer: Where do you stay atm?
Me: Hilton Hotel Antwerp (which wasn't true)
Officer: Where in The Netherlands?
Me: Amsterdam, where exactly I cannot say atm, but you can reach me by e-mail which is on my businesscard I gave you.
Officer: Do you have any questions left to ask me?
Me: Could I get a copy of the dvd? And if it is shown to the public make me unrecognizable on the footage then.
Now as you can see, this was a normal accident which unfortunately happens 100 times every day. But now comes the interesting twist of events:
The woman which was hit by Phil's car found out later that I am some uber-rich german who is also known to be famous for his participation in the Gumball 3000 rally, which was featured by VTM's show Telefacts earlier this year. The woman then started calling the media, telling everyone that she was a victim of streetracing. The story became interesting the moment she mentioned my name. The media blew this whole thing up to "frontpage news" proportions and portrayed me as the bad guy who would not help the poor woman and film her instead. This women told the media that the doctors told her she might lose her foot and that it was only luck she could keep it. I saw this accident. This is for sure a lie. The next lie was that she has to be in rehabilitation for one year. When I called the hospital to find out how she is doing, they told me she is fine and she will be back on her feet within weeks.
Believe me folx, those journalists are sensation seeking & small minded, trying to produce mindblowing material to sell more copies of their newspapers, without checking the facts. This whole incident was turned into a blown up media mess, resulting in the following: The Hong Kong investor is not going to invest his money and I am not going to get a home in Belgium. No venture capital fund for talented belgian businessmen either. Just a lot of publicity for the Ultimate Rally
I hope the Netherlands will treat me better
_________________
Wow Kimble it really have gotten out of hand. I cannot vbeleive how media twist the sttories but the most frightning thing I read was certain ISP block people that are accessing your website. That is totally unacceptable
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