A Ferrari and an addict
Amazing Antics: Stories of Alcoholism-Driven Behaviorsâ„¢
As mentioned in this month’s “runners-up,”Swedish playboy Stefan Eriksson, 44, slammed his $1 million Enzo Ferrari into a power pole on Pacific Coast Highway near Los Angeles. He was doing 162 mph. The car split in two and created a 1200-foot trail of debris. Incredibly, Eriksson survived with only minor injuries. Ferrari enthusiasts point out that the driver-safety system performed exactly as it was designed to, while likening the destruction of the Enzo, one of only 400 ever made, to the burning of a Van Gogh.
Eriksson, whose career as executive director of failed electronic game maker Gizmondo recently ended, claimed that a German whom he knew only by the name of Dietrich was driving the car and disappeared after the crash. Officials, perhaps skeptical of the idea that he would let someone he barely knew drive a $1 million car, quickly admitted they are not searching for Harvey”er, I mean Dietrich. Perhaps the unbelievably reckless behaviors had something to do with the fact that Eriksson’s BAL measured .09 per cent and that the crash occurred at 6:15am. If he stopped drinking at 2am, his BAL peaked at over .15 per cent, which is the equivalent of over 10 shots of 80-proof liquor over a span of four hours for a 200-pound person. The speed at impact suggests extraordinary driving abilities while under the influence, somewhat reminiscent of Henri Paul’s ability to accelerate to 90 mph before making a fatal mistake killing him and Princess Diana. To the uninitiated, the ability to consume enormous quantities of alcohol and still drive well”at least to a point”would seem unrelated to the fact that Eriksson reportedly served time for a counterfeiting conviction in the early 1990s. But we know better.