After hitting the officer, the Ferrari dragged his body for 200 yards. The officer died of a broken neck and multiple broken bones.
The grandson, Vorayuth Yoovidhya, fled the scene and police later followed the trail of oil from the car to his family home. Yet a police inspector allegedly helped make Vorayuth’s family driver a scapegoat in the crash. After the cover-up was discovered, the inspector was “transferred to an inactive post” and the police are now promising an impartial investigation.
Amid a public uproar, the deputy police chief is vowing not to give “leniency simply because it involves a wealthy family.” Voyaruth was released on $16,000 bail. (Read more: The World's Most Expensive Car Crash)
Another Ferrari crash, this one in China, has also touched off controversy. The South China Morning Post reports that on March 18, a speeding black Ferrari crashed in Beijing. The driver, who was half-naked at the time, was killed. His two women passengers, also reportedly naked or half-naked, were seriously injured.
The details of the crash were kept under wraps for months. According to the Post, the name that appeared on the death certificate of the driver (“Jia”) was fake. But the Post says the real driver was Ling Gu, son of Ling Jihua, a top deputy to President Hu Jintao.
The story of potential sex games in a speeding Ferrari – owned by the son of an official who made a modest official salary – only added to growing criticism in China over the reckless new class of political rich.
As the facts came to light, Ling was given a new post in the government that the Post said was “largely symbolic.”
Both crashes come on the heels of an equally symbolic crash in Singapore. As Youtube viewers know, a wealthy Chinese investor named Ma Chi raced through a red light in Singapore at 4 a.m. and struck a taxi, which then hit a motorcycle. Ma Chi, the taxi driver, and the motorcycle rider all died.
The crash set off a fierce debate over all the wealthy foreign residents (especially Chinese) who are descending on the island. Amid widespread criticism of the “locusts” invading Singapore, a Singaporean government official attended the wake of the taxi driver.