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| Rabbi Berisch Arriving At Court |
A helpful Rabbi, assisting a woman park her powerful Jaguar car, mowed down two pedestrians and demolished a pharmacy when the vehicle suddenly took off, a court heard today.
Ralph Berisch, 75, was caught on CCTV carrying one terrified man, 44, who thought he was going to die, on the bonnet and colliding with an OAP with a walking stick.
Both victims ended up in the front of the destroyed shop, with the OAP, 79, suffering a broken leg and toe and the other man 13 fractures to his left leg and a lacerated right arm.
Berisch, of Woodstock Avenue, Golders Green has pleaded not guilty to two counts of causing serious injury while driving dangerously in Golders Green Road on March 28, 2018.
He claims he simply got the brake and accelerator pedals mixed up in the unfamiliar automatic car, which reached 20mph on the pavement, also demolishing a bin and bending a metal bollard.
Prosecutor Mr. Nicholas Alexander told Harrow Crown Court: “There are people going about their business, including David Richards, who had just visited his children at a local nursery.
“He describes hearing an extremely loud revving of an engine and being struck from behind and on the bonnet of the car and thinking he was going to die.”
In his statement the kosher butcher said: “I heard a really, really loud excessive revving behind me and the next thing I was on the bonnet, hurtling at speed.
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| David Richard carried on bonnet before Jag collided with Simon Elkouby |
“I thought I was going to die and at the last second it swerved into a pharmacy. I realised my leg was broken and everything was blurry.
“I know the Rabbi behind the wheel, he is a good man it was one hundred per cent and accident and he will be suffering. It has effected my life, but I’m happy to be alive.”
Pedestrian Simon Elkouby saw the car coming toward him, but did not have time to avoid being struck and carried into the pharmacy.
“You will see on the CCTV he tried to move out of the way, but the car is moving at speed,” the prosecutor told the jury. “The car collides with him and he is carried into the front window of the pharmacy.”
He later told police: “A car came across the pavement and hit me directly as I tried to escape. I lost consciousness and woke up under the car and said a prayer as I thought I was going to die.”
An obviously distressed Berisch told police on the scene: “I put the car in drive, I don’t know what happened. It took off, I couldn’t control it.”
The horsepower of the X-type Jag was over twice that of the rabbi’s Toyota Yaris.
Mr. Alexander told the court: “Two people suffered serious injury as the result of the way Rabbi Berisch drove that day.”
He had agreed to assist a woman he knew park her car in a side road. “The next thing the car suddenly reversed backwards into the car parked behind it in a matter of seconds.
“The next thing the car moved forward and accelerated, mounting the pavement and turned left onto Golders Green Road and he next thing she heard was a big crash.”
Eye-witness Dick Segal, 74, a retired designer watched Berisch struggle to park the Jag. “To my amazement it reversed at quick speed into the car behind.
“There was an almighty crash and then the Jag turned left and mounted the pavement and to my absolute horror smashed into a parked car and I saw the door window disintegrate.
“Before that he had looked up and down Beverley Gardens in what I thought was odd behaviour. It was very peculiar.”
The glass-fronted Victoria Pharmacy was destroyed and boss Abbas Dosa recalled: “I heard a very loud crash as the car came crashing through the window of my shop.
“I could see someone was pinned by the car and someone on the bonnet was screaming. This man had injuries to his leg and there was blood everywhere.
“The shop suffered catastrophic damage.”
Trial continues………..
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