Ferrari crash involves alcohol, speed and a white Porsche, police say [UPDATED]

Click on image for photo gallery.

A bizarre car crash in Newport Beach involving two luxury cars early this morning left one person dead, a second injured, a third arrested for gross vehicular manslaughter and a fourth person was detained by police.

An acquaintance of the victim identified him as Charles "Mask" Lewis, co-founder of the mixed-martial-arts apparel company TapouT, which also sponsors fighters. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A Newport Beach Police Department officer who witnessed the wreck and saw a red Ferrari and a white Porsche "spinning out of control" on Jamboree Road between Bison Avenue and East Bluff Drive at 12:57 a.m., Newport Beach Lt. Craig Fox said. The Ferrari "hit the curb and then collided with a pole." The Porsche came to a stop at the scene for a few seconds and then sped away, Fox said.

"It was terrible. It was extensive damage to the vehicle," Fox said, adding that the Ferrari appeared to have split in half.

A woman in the Ferrari was ejected during the accident and taken to a hospital, where she was in stable condition, Fox said. He said police have not determined which one was driving and which one was the passenger.

Police located the Porsche on Bison Avenue just west of Jamboree Road shortly afterward and saw a man and a woman walking away from the car.

"The vehicle had moderate damage and appeared to be consistent with the car involved in the accident on Jamboree," Fox said. "They determined that the male had been driving the Porsche, and he was arrested" for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, he said.

Police identified the driver of the Porsche as Jeffrey David Kirby, 51, of Costa Mesa, and said his bail was set at $1 million. Newport Beach resident Lynn Marie Nabozny, 32, was a passenger in the Porsche and was arrested for public intoxication. She was released about 7:45 a.m. and will not be formally charged, Fox said. He said the investigation is ongoing but that police identified skid marks at the scene "consistent with excessive speeding."

The speed limit on that stretch of road is 50 mph.

See raw video from the scene.

-- Ari B. Bloomekatz

Photo: A Newport Beach police officer at the scene of a  fatal accident involving a Ferrari in Newport Beach. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

 Previous coverage: Flashback to 2006 Ferrari crash in Malibu

The Plot Thickens in Ferrari Crash

Life in Fast Lane Long Before Ferrari Crash

Man held in Ferrari crash case - Officials say mystery witness was actually a passenger

Comments

[bobskis]

Aside from the German autobahn, almost every road in the world (including Italian autostrada) has a speed limit no higher than 120 kph or 75 mph. So why do we continue to build, import and license vehicles specifically designed to go more than twice the legal limits?

[chris]

The car involved was a Ferrari 360 modena, they stopped making them for a few years.You can get them for $80,000 now. this was not a 599, they look nothing alike. I saw the accident scene personally as well, the car is in three large pieces. you should be more accurate with your stories.

[Big poppa]

If this was a Camaro no one would have cared, but when a Ferrrari crashes it brings news vans from all over southern California. Here is a scoop for the news folks: It's not a 599! The 599 has the engine in the front, and you can see in the picture that the "hood" is open showing a front trunk. This appears to be a F430, which can be found at half the price of a 599.

[Rob]

that's a ferrari 360, not a 599...

[Ralph L. Seifer]

I am always mystified by comments such as "skidmarks consistent with speeding." Does this mean consistent with acceleration or deceleration, or speeding to a heavenly rest, or precisely what??? Both the Porsche and Ferrari have anti-skid brakes, so what kind of consistency do we have here??? There are always skidmarks experts who have absolutely no idea of what the tire marks mean other than that there was eventually a collision with a solid object. Ralph L. Seifer, Long Beach

[bobskis]

Small correction to my earlier post: The maximum speed limit on the Italian autostrada is 130 kph (about 80 mph) in dry conditions. It's lower in wet conditions, and much lower for trucks.

[anon]

what a mess...

[Nicole]

Someone was just killed in a horrible accident and you are talking about the cars engine????

[Adam Feigen]

I guess the driver "TappedOut"???

[Dan]

Even with anti-lock brakes, once the car starts going sideways, you get skid marks.

[John Stamos]

The car in the pic is a F360 as mentioned by Chris. And yeah, what's the deal with "skidmarks consistent with speeding" bs? So if someone is going the speed limit and brakes abruptly and leaves a skid mark(s) and crashes this means the driver of the vehicle was speeding? Correlation does not imply causation! Where do they get these guys?! LOL.

[Jim]

Skidmarks consistent with speeding means that the length of the skid is such that the car would have slowed significantly more than 50mph during it. I would have thought that was pretty obvious. It doesn't matter what sort of brakes you have, basic momentum and friction will tell you whether a skidmark could have been created by a car travelling at or below the speed limit.

[Mike]

To the poster who said the cars have "anti-skid" brakes, isn't the term "anti-lock" brakes? The reason I make the distinction is this: a tire doesn't have to lock up in order to leave rubber on the road. The brakes prevent the wheel from --locking up---. However, in extremely rapid deceleration, there is a tremendous force between the tire and road, and so I would expect it to leave some rubber.

Or, a completely different explanation: if the vehicle were skidding sideways or partially sideways, the anti-lock brakes would make no difference.

[Kevin]

bobskis wrote: "why do we continue to build, import and license vehicles specifically designed to go more than twice the legal limits? "

Right Bob, why don't we all just stay at home wearing helmets and eating soft foods? Everyone has their own personal acceptable degree of safety. For some people, there will always be a need to go fast, and the smart ones will do it on a track. There are lots of tracks in a few hour's drive of LA. Unfortunately, there will always be some people with more $$ than brains who will take themselves out of the gene pool.

[Steven]

If this would have been two American cars involved in the accident, I don't think this would have made any news at all. The fact that it's expensive vehicles involved, says it all!!!

[jack]

Drinking and driving lead to death no matter what kind of vehicle you drive or where the engine is, how much the car cost...there is never an excuse even for alcoholics (now,how many idiots will write and say how do I know the drivers were alcoholics)

[Bailey]

Who cares what kind of Ferrari it WAS and by they way, it received coverage because "something" happended in Newport Beach, not because it was a "Ferrari" and not a "Camaro".

[Debbie]

So wait - who died and who was the woman?

"An unidentified man in the Ferrari was pronounced dead. A woman in the car was ejected during the accident and taken to a hospital, where she was in stable condition, Fox said. He said police have not yet determined which one was driving and which one was the passenger." _
None of the follow up stories discuss any of this!

[JOHN]

The car in the pic is a F360 as mentioned by Chris. And yeah, what's the deal with "skidmarks consistent with speeding"? So if someone is going the speed limit and brakes abruptly and leaves a skid mark(s) and crashes this means the driver of the vehicle was speeding? Correlation does not imply causation! Where do they get these guys?! LOL.

[Oscar]

It's too bad that more emphasis is being put on the fact that they are luxury cars instead of the victims themselves. As a society as a whole, we're pretty backwards.

[Matthew]

Of course its always tragic when someone loses their life, but this is the price of playing street racer with your friends. Hopefully someone will learn from someone elses' heartache. Hopefully it was the driver, not the passenger that was killed. To Bobskis's comment... are you suggesting we not allow fast cars to be produced? That is asinine. Many people enjoy having a fast car and use them responsibly including taking them to the racetrack. Your comment is irresponsible and smacks of ignorance. What do we do next outlaw cheeseburgers because they contribute to heart disease?

[sucks]

Unidentified man = Charles Lewis Jr. Owner of TapOut. aka Mask.

[mark]

When cops round up illegal street racers, instead of a simple tow and ticket, the cops sometimes impound the vehicle and crush it so it can't be illegally raced again... I wonder if that would apply here to the porsche... Instead of crushing souped up hondas, crushing this porsche would send a bigger message, no? Must've been a horrific crash for the cops to not know who the driver of the ferrari was... just lucky that this happened late at night with few other potential victims...

[Jonas]

I understand the comments mentioning in dismay that this was a deadly and, really, head shaking accident. But as for the comments surrounding the cars: this is to be expected. The Times wouldn't have given a hoot if this involved some hondas heading to work/home. In fact, I clicked on the story link to find out what kind of Porsche it was (I don't care much for Italian cars). There is no mention about the Porsche's model. Hmm I wonder if it was at least a 911...

[mark]

The picture looks like the engine (sitting behind the driver and passenger) pushed into the cabin and crushed the male while the female was luckily ejected. Maybe ferraris need a seat booster with parachutes... the 2006 Enzo's crash in Malibu shows the driver 'tub' fully protected and enclosed even when the car split in two as it is designed... not this one though.