British millionaire loses control of his $900,000 Porsche at car show and ploughs into crowd of spectators
Four people, including a girl aged six, remain seriously injured in hospital after a British millionaire and sports car enthusiast crashed his $900,000 Porsche at high speed into a crowd of spectators during a car show in Malta.
Paul Bailey, 55, who made his fortune from a phone conferencing business, was among 28 people injured when he lost control of his Porsche 918 Spyder as he drove along an unused airport taxiway at the Paqpaqli motor show on Sunday.
Two of the injured spectators were in a critical condition, Malta’s health minister, Chris Fearne, told the Times of Malta. Two others who had been deemed critical, including the young girl, remained seriously injured but their condition had improved, he added.
“The car was speeding down the taxiway when a back wheel went on the grass,” a witness said.
“The car spun out of control, went through the barriers where a large crowd was watching, and into the area of the static car exhibition. Many people were hit, there was chaos and screams."
Bailey, who is renowned in the supercar world for being the first person to own the ‘holy trinity’ of such machines - the Porsche, a $1.3m McLaren P1 and a Ferrari LaFerrari , worth $1.8m - was shown on video footage being removed from the badly damaged car with his head bleeding heavily.
WATCH: The moment British millionaire Paul Bailey lost control of his Porsche 918 Spyder
One witness to the crash, who races classic cars himself, said he felt Bailey should have been wearing a helmet and other safety gear while driving at such speed, and criticised the flimsy barrier between the track and spectators.
Michel Zarb, who had his own cars at the show, said: “The safety measures in use were not adequate and the barriers put up are the same as those used to keep people behind them as they wave to the Queen.
He said he saw Bailey being removed from the Porsche, and noticed he was not wearing safety equipment: “When I participate … with my cars I make sure I am wearing the safety gear and that the barriers are made out of concrete."
Malta’s president, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, who rode in the supercar a few hours before the crash, was left “traumatised and devastated” by the incident, a spokeswoman for her office said.
The rest of the motor show, hosted by Malta’s president, was cancelled.
Bailey and his wife Selena sold their phone conferencing business, Worldwide Group Holdings, in 2012. Bailey, who is from the east Midlands in England, is director of Horsepower Racing UK, a company that hires out race cars.
