BMW driver travelling at 150km/h kills 2 in China

SINGAPORE - A driver in a BMW car was caught on surveillance camera crashing into a Mazda sedan and smashing it last Saturday in Nanjing, China.

Both passengers in the Mazda sedan were flung out of the car and pronounced dead at the scene, according to English language Chinese tabloid site Shanghaiist.

In the video, the sedan hit a public bus and a taxi before it was completely destroyed.

The BMW car was travelling at about 150 kilometers per hour when it ran a stop light and hit the oncoming Mazda at an intersection between Shiyang Road and Youyihe Road in Qinhuai District, Chinese news site ET Today reported.

"I just felt a gush of wind and a strong vibration at the left-hand side of my car," a witness surnamed Zhao said in the Shanghaiist report. "Then I heard a loud noise and saw a car thrown into the air."

Shanghaiist reported that the 35-year-old BMW driver had abandoned his car straight after the accident. He was arrested about 300 to 400 metres away from the scene with his face covered in blood.

After the video and pictures were posted online, there were rumors that the BMW driver was driving under the influence of drugs as white powder was found in the vehicle. There were also speculations that the suspect was merely a scapegoat.

However, the police have confirmed that the driver tested negative for drugs and alcohol, and DNA tests also proved that the suspect's blood type was the same as the blood samples found in the BMW, according to Shanghaiist.

This is not the first time such a tragedy has happened. In a similar incident in Singapore in 2012, a Ferrari car driven by Ma Chi, 31, a financial investor from Sichuan, fatally injured two others when he ran a red light and drove through the junction of Rochor Road and Victoria Street in Bugis. Some reports said he was travelling at over 140km/h.

His car collided with a taxi and hit a motorcycle. Mr Ma was pronounced dead at the scene.

The taxi driver, Mr Cheng Teck Hock, 52, was declared brain-dead and, eventually, died. The taxi’s passenger, a 41-year-old Japanese woman, also died later.

The passenger in Mr Ma’s Ferrari, a Chinese national in her 20s, suffered serious injuries, including a fractured leg, but did not die from the accident.

stephluo@sph.com.sg