Related News

Home » Nation

Beijing 'Fast and Furious' supercar race drivers sentenced to jail

TWO drivers who staged a real-life "Fast and Furious" drag race in downtown Beijing last month received respective jail sentences of five months and four months on Thursday.

The supercar crash caused a stir online and hit headlines of Chinese media across the country then. It happened to take place only a couple of hours before “Furious 7,” the latest instalment of the street-racing “Fast and Furious” movie franchise had its midnight premiere on the Chinese mainland.

Tang Wentian, 21, was driving a US$800,000 Lamborghini and Yu Muchun, 20, was at the wheel of a a US$500,000 Ferrari, in the Datun Tunnel in Beijing's Chaoyang District about 9pm on April 11, according to police. The drag-racing cars careened through the tunnel guardrail before smashing into walls at speeds of more than 160 km/h about 10pm, causing both vehicles to be severely damaged.

Datun Tunnel has three lanes in each direction with a speed limit of 60 kilometers per hour.

A 24-year-old woman in the passenger seat of the Lamborghini suffered a burst fracture of her lumbar spine, police said. The impact of injury will prevent her from any intense exercise for the rest of her life and she would not be able to get pregnant in the next two years, reported Phoenix News. She has filed a civil lawsuit against the drivers to seek compensation, according to Phoenix News.

They caused an economic loss of 320,000 yuan damaging the public facilities and had paid off after the crash.

They were charged for dangerous driving, according to the Chaoyang District People's Court of Beijing. Yu, who surrendered himself, will be jailed for four months and fined 8,000 yuan (about 1,290 US dollars), while Tang was sentenced to five months and fined 10,000 yuan (about 1,613 US dollars).

Both the supercars are registered in Beijing.

The Beijing News quoted a witness as saying there were also several other sports cars at the scene at the time of the crash.

The case also caused quite a stir on the Internet, renewing criticism on reckless behavior and blatant lawbreaking by some members of the "second wealthy generation", the children of China's new rich.

 




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend