Gumball 3000 pilot Nick Morley speaks to the Manchester Evening News regarding the infamous accident, his release on bail, his subsequent re-incarceration and his trial. He also mentions that an appeal to clear his name is to be filed shortly. – Davey G. Johnson

Gumball driver: I'm no playboy [Manchester Evening News, UK via Team Polizei]

Related:
Nick Morley Convicted in Gumball Crash, Gets Suspended Sentence [Internal]

The Morley family has a released a statement of facts regarding the Macedonian trial of Nicholas Morley, which seems to jibe with what we've sussed ourselves about what went down the day before the 2007 Gumball 3000 came apart at the seams. According to the original accident investigator on the scene, as well as an investigator from nonprofit British organization TRL, Morley was traveling at or under 47 mph and would have had 1.6 seconds in which to stop from the point that Vladimir Cepuljoski pulled out in front of his Porsche. The full statement after the jump.

The initial accident investigation was carried out by a professional Macedonian investigator. His findings were reviewed and confirmed by Dr Richard Lambourn, an established expert in the field.
Dr Lambourn was an accident reconstruction specialist at the Metropolitan Police Forensic Science Laboratory for 23 years (1973-1996) and is currently a principal consultant at TRL, an independent, not-for-profit transport research firm and consultancy. It was the firm that reconstructed the car crash that caused the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

The cause of the crash was a second vehicle pulling out of a minor road without warning and into Nicholas's path. The cause of the crash has not been disputed by the prosecution.

According to the defence expert witnesses, Nicholas had 1.6 seconds to respond to the second car's sudden appearance, causing him to react reflexively and swerve violently to the left. The defence experts concluded that the accident would have been unavoidable at 30mph (50kph).

The court declined to hear the evidence of the defence expert witnesses, although the testimony of the prosecution expert witness was heard.

Macedonia is party to the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 6 of which provides a detailed right to a fair trial. Under the Macedonian Criminal Code, the defence has a right to submit evidence.

The prosecution's accident investigator is not a professional in this field. He admitted in court that he is currently unemployed. He further admitted in court that the police sketch of the crash site on which he based his findings is inaccurate.

Dr Lambourn concluded that the accident investigation report relied on by the prosecution is "fundamentally flawed in its physical and mathematical reasoning." He further concluded that it was "quite impossible" that Nicholas's car was travelling at the 100mph (161kph) alleged by the prosecution.

The family of the Mr and Mrs Cepunjoski, who were tragically killed in the crash, have called for the court to release Nicholas.

Following the accident, Nicholas and his passenger, Matthew McConville, attempted to disentangle the vehicles and offer what assistance they could. They only left the scene after the injured persons had left the scene in local vehicles. Nicholas and Matthew then travelled to the border to alert the police.

Nicholas Morley and Matthew McConville spoke to the investigating judge at Qafasan, on the Macedonia/Albania border.

Nicholas Morley did not try to flee the country. He was released on bail, with no conditions or restrictions attached. He was free to leave the country.

Nicholas Morley, 30, is not a millionaire; he does not work in property.

Morley Family Gumball Accident Statement of Facts [Team Polizei]

Related:
Nick Morley Convicted in Gumball Crash, Gets Suspended Sentence; Trial Of Gumball 3000 Driver Expected To Wrap Up Today; Gumball 3000 Driver Forgiven by Victims' Family; Gumball 3000 Death Trial to Begin Friday; Fast As a Shark: East of Eden: The Fall of the Gumball 3000; Morley Released On Bail, Tries To Flee Macedonia In Private Jet, Arrested Again; Gumballers Nick Morley And Matthew McConville Arrested After Hit-And-Run Fatality [Internal]

After an excruciating month during which simple human tragedy clashed with hyper-sensationalism, political posturing, class warfare and judicial process, the Nick Morley Gumball 3000 crash saga is nearing a resolution. According to Alex Roy of Team Polizei, a court in Macedonia has found British Gumball driver Morley culpable in the deaths of an elderly couple killed in the crash. But in a stomach-churning turn of events, Morley will be released on a suspended sentence. There are too many lessons to be learned from this incident to list here. Maybe it's enough just to close the book and move on. – Mike Spinelli

Gumball Crash Driver Nick Morley To Be Released, but... [Team Polizei 144]

Trial Of Gumball 3000 Driver Expected To Wrap Up Today; Gumball 3000 Driver Forgiven by Victims' Family; Gumball 3000 Death Trial to Begin Friday; Morley Released On Bail, Tries To Flee Macedonia In Private Jet, Arrested Again; Dumball 3000 Claims Second Life! [internal]

"Court's expert Mile Popovski, whose report served as a basis for the indictment, reiterated his findings that Morley exceeded the prescribed speed limit thus causing the accident in which Chepunjoski spouses were killed.

Court's expert reiterated that Morley was speeding his Porsche with 161,1 km/h and crashed with 158 km/h into the Chepunjoski's Golf that had already entered the left lane of the Struga-Qafasan local road with 70 percent of its length. After sighting the Golf at 88 meters of distance, the Porsche's driver failed to hit the brakes but turned to the left and collided with the Golf, said Popovski, a traffic engineer commissioned by the Struga District Court to compose a report on the traffic accident that occurred 2 May near Struga."

"The reports of the independent expert Vinko Gaica and of British company TRL Limited, non-compliant with the one composed by Mile Popovski, say that Morley's Porsche was moving with 70 to 76 km/h and the Golf failed to halt at the STOP sign before entering the main road from a byroad.

Morley's defense had several remarks on the Popovski's manner of conducting the forensics procedure. They complained that the speed at which Golf had been moving was not taken into consideration when calculating that of the Porsche, and that Popovski's reconstruction outline was incompliant with the actual situation."

Opposing forensics reports confronted at Morley's trial [makfax online]

Related:
Gumballers Nick Morley And Matthew McConville Arrested After Hit-And-Run Fatality; Morley Released On Bail, Tries To Flee Macedonia In Private Jet, Arrested Again; Fast as a Shark: East of Eden: The Fall of the Gumball 3000; Gumball 3000 Death Trial to Begin Friday; Gumball 3000 Driver Forgiven by Victims' Family [internal]

The UK's Daily Mail is reporting, with typical Fleet Street flair, that the Cepuljoski family has forgiven Gumball 3000 participant Nicholas Morley, who as y'all likely recall, crashed into a MkII Golf driven by Vladimir Cepuljoski that had pulled out in front of his TechArt Porsche 911, resulting in the death of Cepuljoski and his wife. According to a statement released by the family during Morley's trial:

"We ask this court to release young Nicholas. It was ill-fate that made our son and father make that fatal mistake and join the main road without stopping his vehicle. We have experienced a terrible tragedy, but we feel that it would be another tragedy to keep this young man in prison. We think he has suffered enough and his conviction would offer no comfort to our grief."

Let death race Briton go, says victims' family [Daily Mail, UK via Team Polizei]

Related:
Fast as a Shark: East of Eden: The Fall of the Gumball 3000 [Internal]

The trial of Gumball 3000 pilots Nick Morley and Matthew McConville regarding the deaths of two Macedonians during the Athens-to-Tirana stage of the rally begins Friday. If convicted, they face at least four years in a Macedon hoosegow. We'd be fascinated to see what the difference in penalty would have been if the pair hadn't twice tried to flee the country. – Davey G. Johnson

Trial of Briton Nicholas Morley Opens Friday [Makfax vesnik via Team Polizei]

Related:
European Authorities to Crack Down on Rallying [Internal]

Gumball crash driver tried to flee in private jet [Telegraph.co.uk]

Related:
All of our Gumball 3000 coverage [internal]

The international rally Gumball 3000 claimed the second victim today - Margarita Chepunjoska, the wife of Vladimir, who died two days ago, has passed away today in the Skopje Clinic Center.

Margarita was severely injured in the accident that took place on Wednesday, when a participant of the rally crashed his Porsche into the car driven by her husband.

Gumball 3000 claimed another life in Macedonia [makfax.com]

Related:
"Scumball 3000" Is Not The Scummy Gumball 3000 — Enter The "Dumball 3000"; Scumball 3000 Shows Us What The Scene Of A Heart Attack Looks Like; Gumballers Nick Morley And Matthew McConville Arrested After Hit-And-Run Fatality [internal]

"An investigative judge of Struga Court ordered 30 days of temporary detention to the British citizen Nicholas Morley, Makfax's correspondent reported.

Morley has been detained for the purposes of the investigation into yesterday's traffic accident that took place at Struga-Qafasan road, which left one Macedonian citizen dead. The victim's wife, who has suffered heavy injuries in the accident, is in critical condition.

The tragic traffic accident occurred on the Struga-Qafasan road near KMR Petrol station. The speeding Porsche, driven by the Briton, crossed over the center lane and crashed into Golf with Ohrid registration plates."

...that the driver and passenger of the BMW with Russian license plates were released by Macedonian authorities after initially being taken into custody. As for the official charges against Morley — they were for:

"...a formal accusation against Morley for "heavy violation of traffic safety" and "failure to provide help to an injured person."

Briton reported for accident near Struga gets 30-day temporary detention [MaxFax.com.mk]

Related:
Russian BMW Reportedly Picked Up Morley And McConville After Deadly Gumball 3000 Hit-And-Run; Gumball 3000 Race Organizers Attempting To Cover Up Hit-And-Run; Gumballers Nick Morley And Matthew McConville Arrested After Hit-And-Run Fatality [internal]

[Hat tip to ZeroSignal!]
[Thanks to GTSpirit for the BMW picture!]
[Thanks to Richard Blakeley on the top graphic!]

Related:
Gumball 3000 Race Organizers Attempting To Cover Up Hit-And-Run; Gumballers Nick Morley And Matthew McConville Arrested After Hit-And-Run Fatality [internal]

"everyone involveed has been told to shut up so im going around them, calling authorities...they tried covering the shit up, they've had 24 hours to issue a press release...and nothing of the sort...they kept it from all other gumballers too"

Gumball 3000 Official Forums Forum Index [Gumball 3000]

Related:
Gumballers Nick Morley And Matthew McConville Arrested After Hit-And-Run Fatality [internal]

...have been arrested in Macedonia after an alleged hit and run incident which left one man dead and his wife fighting for her life.

The 67-year-old died on his way to hospital and his wife was in a critical condition after a Porsche taking part in the super car race crossed the road at speed and ploughed into their VW Golf...

...The drivers of the Porsche 911 Turbo Techart which Macedonian TV station A1 named as Nick Morley and Matthew McConville, allegedly got out of their crashed car and ran off.

The station said they later climbed into another car, a BMW, and tried to leave the country.

But eye witnesses alerted police and the pair were arrested at the border.

? ? [A1.com.mk via Metro.co.uk]

UPDATE: Gumball 3000 Race Organizers Attempting To Cover Up Hit-And-Run Death

UPDATE: Russian BMW Reportedly Picked Up Morley And McConville After Deadly Gumball 3000 Hit-And-Run

Related:
All our Gumball 3000 coverage [internal]