Los Angeles – It was a traffic alert made for Malibu.
A red Ferrari Enzo – one of only 400 ever made and worth more than $1 million – broke apart Tuesday when it crested a hill on the Pacific Coast Highway going 120 mph and slamming into a power pole.
The driver jumped out of the wreckage and ran into the canyon above, evading a three-hour search by a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department helicopter and a mountain search team.
The crash sent shock waves through both the tabloid and exotic car worlds as one group wondered whether the driver was a celebrity – and the other mourned the loss of a hand-built car revered by many as a work of art.
The car was certain to be owned by someone rich, if not famous. Actor Nicolas Cage owns one. And Malibu local Britney Spears has been chased in a Ferrari by the paparazzi.
But by day’s end the tabloids were disappointed to learn the demolished car had been owned by a Swedish millionaire with no Screen Actor’s Guild card.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators identified him as 44-year-old Stefan Eriksson, a Bel-Air resident. Officials are trying to determine whether he is the noted Swedish game designer who created car-racing themed video games.
Authorities said Eriksson claimed to be a passenger in the Ferrari, which was being driven by a German acquaintance he knew only as Dietrich.
One witness told deputies that the Ferrari appeared to be racing with a Mercedes SLR north along the coastal highway when the accident occurred about 6 a.m.
“It took out the pole and part of the car went another 600 feet,” Sgt. Philip Brooks said. “There were 1,200 feet of debris out there.”
While Eriksson told authorities that “Dietrich” ran up a hill toward the canyon road and disappeared, Brooks said detectives are far from convinced they have the whole story.
Eriksson “had a .09 (percent) blood-alcohol level, but if he’s a passenger, that’s OK,” Brooks said. “But he had a bloody lip, and only the air bag on the driver’s side had blood on it. The passenger-side air bag did not. My Scooby-Do detectives are looking closely into that.”
