Wisam El Haouli pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving after he allegedly crashed his car driving teens to a formal in Moffat Beach

A Sunshine Coast man who was driving teens to their formal when his car allegedly crashed after he did a burnout has blamed a mechanical failure for the incident.

A Glenview man who was driving two teens to their high school formal claims a mechanical failure caused his muscle car to crash in Moffat Beach, a court has heard.

The teens had hired Wisam El Haouli, 45, to drive them in his 1974 Torana V8 twin turbo car to their formal on November 18, 2020, from Moffat Beach.

As Mr El Haouli started driving along Seaview Terrace, Moffat Beach, police allege he did a burnout before the car allegedly crashed into bollards outside a cafe, causing the car to flip onto its side.

Mr El Haouli pleaded not guilty in Caloundra Magistrates Court on Friday, August 20, to dangerous driving.

The court watched his initial interview with police, where Mr El Haouli said the accelerator in his car had gotten stuck and he panicked as he tried to overcorrect the car.

The driver charged over a formal car crash in Moffat Beach has fronted a Caloundra court.

“I couldn’t control it no more, I put my foot on the break in panic,” he said in his interview.

“I couldn’t stop it, the steering locked and that’s when it hit in the side of the shop.”

Mr El Haouli said he would never intentionally hurt anyone or aim to damage his car, which he had spent the past 20 years building.

“I would never do a burnout with people like that around like that,” he said.

The court heard Mr El Haouli had never gotten his turbo charged car assessed by a registered mechanic in the 20 years he’d owned it.

Andrew McDonald, a vehicle inspection officer for the Queensland Police Service, said after assessing Mr El Haouli’s car he could confirm it had been heavily modified.

Mr McDonald said he’d identified the throttle leaver and a portion of the throttle shaft was broken and a part of the throttle was hanging off after the crash.

Wisam El Haouli pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving.

“The throttle was stuck at quarter open,” he said.

Mr McDonald said he couldn’t determine when the throttle body broke.

Thomas Cable, 18, told the court he remembered Mr El Haouli say he wouldn’t do any burnouts.

Police prosecutor David Bradley said Mr El Haouli’s car “was objectively dangerous through the modifications” and he had tried to do a burnout unsuccessfully.

“He wilfully and deliberately did a burnout and through the course of that burnout a catastrophic failure occurred, and that vehicle crashed,” he said.

Magistrate Catherine Benson will hand down her judgment on October 1.

Originally published as Wisam El Haouli pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving after he allegedly crashed his car driving teens to a formal in Moffat Beach