Brian France in accident....is OK: According to a Daytona Beach police report, Brian France crashed his Lexus four-door sedan into a tree just outside his condominium on Marina Point Drive. Police said Magnolia Avenue resident Shirley Hill saw France enter the parking lot of the Chart House restaurant just after 9pm/et. Monday and plow into a tree on the property. At that point, the 44-year-old France backed up his car and slid into the underground parking garage of the nearby Marina Point condominium, where he has a unit, the report shows. Hill called police and reported the wreck. Police Chief Mike Chitwood said officers called France downstairs that night to ask what had happened. France did not return a telephone call to The Daytona Beach News-Journal on Wednesday, but the report shows he told police he was drinking a soda and driving when he "bumped something" and the drink spilled in his car. Officers inspected the interior of the car and found the remains of the soda on the dashboard and front seat, the report shows. They also spotted debris from a palm tree on France's passenger door, but no damaged tree in the Chart House parking lot, the report states. It is not clear why Hill was driving behind France on Beach Street and what France actually struck. Hill could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Chitwood said officers at the scene did not ask France to perform a field sobriety test because, "He did not smell of alcohol or anything like that."(Daytona Beach News Journal)(11-9-2006)


Nice...

Hmm... I'm glad he's OK... but... what the?

:) I'm glad he's ok!

he took off after he hit the tree? Man there had to be something in that "soda"

Glad he's okay. I don't find anything funny about any car accident, personally.

Glad he's ok!

no accident is funny. I'm glad he isn't hurt I just find it a little suspicious

Definitely a little suspicious...

Maybe.. she was going home? And didn't it say he hit a tree?

*Scratches head* Glad he's alright.. just weird

Glad he's okay!

I'm glad he's ok.

Glad he's ok.

Glad he's okay.......

but that whole article was just a little weird, its like huh? What happened?

Updated on Jayski:

Article November 10, 2006

Police launch probe of NASCAR chief's car crash

By LYDA LONGA
Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- A witness told police NASCAR boss Brian France was driving recklessly and hit more than a tree as he sped home to his riverfront condominium earlier this week.

Now, Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood, after speaking to witness Shirley Hill, has launched an internal affairs investigation to determine whether officers who responded to France's condo on Marina Pointe Drive on Monday night handled the incident correctly.

"If I find out that someone gave him (France) a break because of his last name, someone is going to have to look for a new job," Chitwood said Thursday afternoon.

A police report released to The Daytona Beach News-Journal on Wednesday showed only that the 44-year-old France had crashed into a tree after entering the parking lot of the Chart House restaurant off Beach Street.

But Hill's written witness statement was not attached to the police report, an oversight, according to Chitwood.

In the witness statement and in a call to 911, Hill said France drove recklessly along U.S. 1 on Monday night. She also recounted the episode to Chitwood, who called Hill "a very credible witness." France, the chairman and CEO of NASCAR, did not return a telephone call seeking comment Thursday.

Hill, a retail store clerk, told police she was in the path of a silver Lexus driven "at a very reckless speed" along U.S. 1 just after 9 p.m.

She said she and a friend were heading back to Daytona Beach along U.S. 1 after trying to get some dinner at a Holly Hill restaurant that was closed for the evening.

The women were deciding where else to go when Hill said she noticed a car in her rear-view mirror speeding toward her vehicle.

"He was driving between two lanes and I said, 'God, this car is coming up real fast on me,' " Hill said. "I got out of the way as fast as I could."

Hill said she watched as the Lexus then raced forward and again got extremely close to another car in front of it. At that point, she said the vehicle drove onto the sidewalk between Fairview and Orange avenues on Ridgewood.

By this time, Hill had called 911 and was following the Lexus while she talked to a dispatcher. On the 911 recording, Hill can be heard explaining the entire incident, then scream in horror when she tells the dispatcher the driver hit a parked car as he drove east on Orange Avenue toward Beach.

Hill followed the car and talked to the dispatcher until the driver plowed the car into a tree in the parking lot of the Chart House restaurant. She watched as the car was driven toward an underground parking garage at the Marina Pointe condominium, the report states.

According to Hill's written witness statement to police, the man "fell over his own feet," as he got out of his automobile.

When several officers responded to the scene at 9:51 p.m., the man had already gone upstairs to his apartment, Chitwood said. Roughly 15 minutes later, France came downstairs, dressed in fresh clothes.

He told officers he was driving and drinking a soda when he "bumped into something," the initial report states. When police checked the inside of his four-door car, they saw the spilled soft drink on the dashboard and the front seat.

Chitwood said officers at the scene spent about an hour-and-a-half with France, but did not give him a field sobriety test because they said there was no probable cause. He did not smell of alcohol, Chitwood said Thursday.

France is the wealthy grandson of the founder of NASCAR. Since speaking with an angry Hill on Thursday afternoon, Chitwood now wants a full-blown internal affairs investigation to find out how officers handled the call.

"I'm dealing with someone very credible in Ms. Hill," Chitwood said. "I owe it to her and to the community to have an internal affairs investigation to find out what happened. The investigation has already started.

"If we made a mistake, we will correct it," he said.

Something smells bad here and it's not my dog's ass.

like I said in the beginning. There must have been something besides soda in that soda. Sounds like 'Oh my god this is brian France we'll just wave this off' :1cent

That's interesting...

:nod

There's definetly something fishy going on with this whole thing.

:lmao

The 911 call the lady made is interesting. She sounds totally legit. She even says at the beginning when asked what is her emergency, she says it's not an emergency and she doesn't know what to call it. She obviously doesn't know who Brian France is she just followed him, because of the way he he was driving and gave 911 the tag number.

Awww.... she says "Oh my God...I just don't want nobody to get killed." :(

It's a very disjointed call; you can tell the 911 operator is getting frustated with her at the end because the lady is talking to the operator, a passenger, and Brian France's condo security guard at the same time. (The condo guard knew who Brian France was).

I think it was funny that she thought he was about 25 when asked. That baby face comes in handy! :)

http://www.news-journalonline.com/media/audio/911-france.mp3

Gollee that operator has a whole lot of patience...I woulda got frustrated alot quicker

maybe he was trying to recreate Robby Gordon throwing out the roll bar padding.

I'm gonna have to bite my tongue hard on this one......

but I figured there was more to the story and I hope all the facts are recovered and if he did what it seems like he did, I hope he gets punished just like the rest of America would.

Ditto!

It seemed fishy from the first artical Jen posted... this just keeps getting more interesting as more information comes out.

if he did what it looks like he did, yeap he damn sure better have to face the consequences just like everyone else.

Case closed on NASCAR boss Brian France's case?
By DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
A Daytona Beach police officer said NASCAR chief executive officer Brian France admitted he drank alcohol on Nov. 6, the night a woman called 911 saying she observing France's car driving erratically.

Results of an internal affairs investigation into the incident were released Thursday and reported in Friday's Daytona Beach News-Journal. It concluded that France could not be arrested for driving under the influence because police did not talk to him until after he had been inside his condominium for 20 minutes.

"It would be illegal for me to ... arrest and ... investigate it, not knowing what he could have done in his condominium for 20 minutes," Officer Penny Dane told internal affairs investigators, the report said.

Police Cchief Mike Chitwood said that once officers knew France was involved they made sure to follow the law and gave the NASCAR chairman no special treatment.

"They knew they had better dot their I's and cross their T's," Chitwood told the newspaper.

France issued a statement through NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston saying that he had fully cooperated with police on Nov. 6 and that he was on his way home from a fast-food restaurant.

"I accidentally brushed against a tree or roadside stump on the narrow road leading to my apartment," France said.

"The State Attorney's Office and the Daytona Beach Police Department have concluded that all the procedures were followed. As such I consider this case closed."

Shirley Hill called 911 while following a Lexus on U.S. 1 and reported it was being driven erratically. The Lexus crashed into a tree just outside the condos on Marina Point Drive around 9 p.m.

When police responded around 9:50 p.m., the man driving had gone upstairs. A security guard at the condominiums identified France as the driver. Twenty minutes later, police knocked on France's door and he came back downstairs with them.

Dane said that she did not smell alcohol on France, who had changed clothes before coming down to talk woth officers. But she said France "did openly state to me that he had had a few (alcoholic beverages) over at the Chart House."

The Chart House is a Daytona restaurant located within walking distance of the condo.

The initial police report did not include that information, Chitwood said, because officers were investigating a crash and not a DUI. The initial report said France had told officers he was driving and drinking a soda when he bumped into something. Police said they saw evidence of a spilled soda and a half-eaten hamburger in the car.

"I believe everything Ms. Hill told us and you can draw your own conclusions from that," Chitwood told the News-Journal.

"The bottom line is he (France) was out of his car, he was inside his apartment and he could have had the alcohol there and hours before. Since we didn't stop him in his car, we couldn't touch him."

:asshat

:bs

That's a bunch of BS!