A woman accused of killing her friend in a 120mph Lamborghini crash claims he fiddled with the supercar’s controls causing it to ‘surge’ in speed.
Humaira Batool, 26, denies causing the death of 20-year-old Mohammed Shaan Hussain by dangerous driving in the early hours of December 21, 2022.
She was behind the wheel when the Urus, hired by Mr Hussain, hit a barrier on the M62 near Ripponden, West Yorkshire, in December 2022.
Other motorists stopped and tried to rescue Mr Hussain but were beaten back by the flames which engulfed the high-performance car. He died in the wreckage.
Batool escaped and was found on a grass verge with serious injuries, including burns to around 10 per cent of her body and a shattered tibia.
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Jurors at Leeds Crown Court heard Mr Hussain had hired the Lamborghini to collect a friend from HMP Leeds and picked up Batool from her Bradford home at about 4am.
He was initially the driver of the powerful supercar, but the pair swapped seats and the court heard she drove at more than twice the speed limit in dark and wet conditions.
The court heard the car had reached speeds of up to 143mph before the fatal crash.
It was travelling at around 120mph as it passed Stott Hall Farm – the ‘house in the middle of the motorway’ – before leaving the carriageway, jurors were told.
Mr Dunn said: ‘The defendant’s driving fell far below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver.’
Batool initially told police she had been asleep in the passenger seat and awoke when the car rolled, the court heard.
But footage shown to the jury showed her leaving the passenger seat at traffic lights, moving around the Lamborghini and taking the driver’s seat from Mr Hussain.
Mr Dunn said: ‘She kept entirely shtum about that until she was forced to acknowledge it when she was confronted with unequivocal evidence proving that she was the driver at the relevant time.’
Batool told jurors Mr Hussain had been handling controls inside the car, saying ‘Watch this, watch this’, before reaching towards the center console and steering wheel.
She claimed the vehicle repeatedly ‘boosted’ as he ‘pressed the buttons multiple times’, causing her to panic and freeze.
But a Lamborghini expert told the trial there were no buttons, levers or controls which could cause such acceleration.
Mr Dunn told the jury: ‘You may feel she embarked on a deeply distasteful attempt to put the blame for that grossly excessive speed upon the person who died as a result of her dangerous driving.’
Defending, Richard Dawson argued the collision may have been a genuine accident for which nobody was criminally responsible.
He said: ‘Sometimes, accidents happen – accidents in the true sense where no one is criminally to blame.’
Mr Dawson said high speed alone would not make a car suddenly leave the road and overturn, suggesting something else must have caused the catastrophic loss of control.
He said: ‘The prosecution have never been able to provide any crucial detail as to how or why the collision actually occurred. They don’t know.’
Mr Dawson said Batool did not claim to know exactly what Mr Hussain touched, only that the car surged afterwards.
The trial continues.
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