The accident took place on a motorway "motorväg" just outside Copenhagen, Denmark on Sunday April 29, 2001. The car was a brand new BMW Z3 Coupé 3.0, which was delivered in December 2000 by BMW, Hamburg. The Z3 model has been on the market for a few years but some changes hade been made for the 3.0i which was launched in late 2000, e.g. did BMW replace the ASC system with the ASC+T and other modifications. The model is manufactured in the USA.
Immediately after purchase I discovered that the car did not quite perform as I had expected. It was soft and wobbely, felt insecure in curves and I planned on telling the people at BMW this after the first service at 600 km (the crash occureed after 400 km). I also wrote an e-mail to Hamann which is a company in Germany that enhances performance on BMWs and Ferraris, complaining about the bad performance of the car.
I am a very experienced driver, having owned three different BMW's, the latest one an M5 Touring, tuned by BMW's Motorsport Division in Munich. I also work as a photographer for Volvo and have driven both my BMW's and Volvos on racing cirquits in very tough circumstances. This is why I truly can say that the Z3 Coupé was not at all in line with what to expect from a sport's car of this kind.
We, I and my girlfriend Charlotta Andersson, were travelling (with the ASC+T system on) on the motorway at about 120 km/h (speed limit 110 km/h), approaching a curve that leads from one motorway to another I suddenly lowered the speed as the road became more narrow. Now the car starts to skid on all four wheels, I am unable to handle it and correct the car's performance, we go into the barrier on our left side and crash out to the right side of the road where there is a ditch and then a slope upwards. The car rolls a few times and becomes severely damaged. No airbags inflate (the car is equipped with four of them), my left arm is thrown out of the driver's window and is severely damaged (see pictures after surgery). My girlfriend's left arm is cut by glass and both our heads as well, probably from the glass-roof. When the car has stopped rolling we discover that the driver's door can not be opened and I have to leave the car using the passenger's door which can be opened. After ambulances arrive we are taken to Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen and two days later transferred to Malmö, where we undergo surgery.
Today my girlfriend has started working while I still am unable to work full time. We are seeking compensation because we have a strong suspicion that something was wrong with the car. It is also to be noted that my arm would probably been saved if the side-airbag had worked. The car is parked here in Malmö and we are looking for an authorized person to perform a technical study of the car.
The accident took place on a motorway "motorväg" just outside Copenhagen, Denmark on Sunday April 29, 2001. The car was a brand new BMW Z3 Coupé 3.0, which was delivered in December 2000 by BMW, Hamburg. The Z3 model has been on the market for a few years but some changes hade been made for the 3.0i which was launched in late 2000, e.g. did BMW replace the ASC system with the ASC+T and other modifications. The model is manufactured in the USA.
Immediately after purchase I discovered that the car did not quite perform as I had expected. It was soft and wobbely, felt insecure in curves and I planned on telling the people at BMW this after the first service at 600 km (the crash occureed after 400 km). I also wrote an e-mail to Hamann which is a company in Germany that enhances performance on BMWs and Ferraris, complaining about the bad performance of the car.
I am a very experienced driver, having owned three different BMW's, the latest one an M5 Touring, tuned by BMW's Motorsport Division in Munich. I also work as a photographer for Volvo and have driven both my BMW's and Volvos on racing cirquits in very tough circumstances. This is why I truly can say that the Z3 Coupé was not at all in line with what to expect from a sport's car of this kind.
We, I and my girlfriend Charlotta Andersson, were travelling (with the ASC+T system on) on the motorway at about 120 km/h (speed limit 110 km/h), approaching a curve that leads from one motorway to another I suddenly lowered the speed as the road became more narrow. Now the car starts to skid on all four wheels, I am unable to handle it and correct the car's performance, we go into the barrier on our left side and crash out to the right side of the road where there is a ditch and then a slope upwards. The car rolls a few times and becomes severely damaged. No airbags inflate (the car is equipped with four of them), my left arm is thrown out of the driver's window and is severely damaged (see pictures after surgery). My girlfriend's left arm is cut by glass and both our heads as well, probably from the glass-roof. When the car has stopped rolling we discover that the driver's door can not be opened and I have to leave the car using the passenger's door which can be opened. After ambulances arrive we are taken to Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen and two days later transferred to Malmö, where we undergo surgery.
Today my girlfriend has started working while I still am unable to work full time. We are seeking compensation because we have a strong suspicion that something was wrong with the car. It is also to be noted that my arm would probably been saved if the side-airbag had worked. The car is parked here in Malmö and we are looking for an authorized person to perform a technical study of the car.
Malmö, Sweden, 011023 Per-Anders Jörgensen
- Per-Anders J., Malmo, Skane, Sweden