Fatal Ferrari China crash drives scandal speculation

Fatal Ferrari China crash drives scandal speculation

BEIJING - A 21-year-old driver crashed his Ferrari at high speed in Beijing, killing a passenger and injuring another, media reported on Thursday, sparking comparisons with a scandal that rocked China's ruling Communist Party two years ago.

Images of the twisted wreckage of what the Beijing Evening News said was a Ferrari 458 were widely shared online following the accident, which the newspaper said happened on the airport expressway in the early hours of Thursday.

The driver, aged 21, emerged with a broken arm while one passenger was killed and another injured, it said, without naming any of those involved. All three were understood to be male, it added.

Comments on social networks drew comparisons with a high-speed Ferrari crash in the capital in March 2012 that left the son of a close ally of then-president Hu Jintao dead. Two women passengers, one of them naked, were both injured.

Mr Ling Jihua was removed from a key party post and given a less high-profile position following the accident, which added to public perceptions in China of corrupt and high-living officials.

"A similar thing happened before. Which official's son is it this time?" asked one commentator on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, following Thursday's accident.

"Princeling again?" asked another.

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