Hatz, Müller ran from 911 crash, paper reports

A German newspaper has reported that Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Müller and imprisoned Porsche director of development Wolfgang Hatz fled from a crash in South Africa in 2013.

Volkswagen admitted that Müller was a passenger in a 911 being driven by Hatz when it was involved in a crash near its hot-weather test centre outside Pofadder, about 60km from the Namibian border.

Bild am Sonntag reported that the Porsche, fitted with German number plates, forced two oncoming vehicles off the road to avoid it. There was no suggestion of contact between the Porsche and the two other vehicles.

The newspaper reported that at least one of the vehicles was a truck and its passengers were thrown out of the tray. Hatz and Müller remained at the scene for "a few minutes" but left before the police arrived, according to the report.

While the newspaper suggested the driver would have committed an offence by "fleeing the scene", South African investigators instead said the situation was "confusing" and initially suspected a rear-end collision.

A Porsche spokesman denied there was an ongoing investigation in South Africa, telling the paper: "It came to this accident and Wolfgang Hatz was involved. There were no injured."

Müller went on to succeed Dr Martin Winterkorn as the Chairman of the Volkswagen Group in the wake of the Dieselgate scandal.

On the other hand, Bavarian police have had former Volkswagen Group head of powertrain Hatz locked away in prison, without charge, since the middle of last year as it continues to investigate Dieselgate.