By KUO LAO
Society Correspondent
GUANGZHOU (China Daily Show) – Public anger is mounting over a shocking car crash caused by a speeding Ferrari that left a single sole survivor – one Eric S Li, the sports car’s millionaire driver.
After belting through several red lights today around 2.30am (BST) in downtown Guangzhou, the $2 million Italian speed machine took out a rickshaw at 144mph, according to witnesses.
The multiple vehicular pile-up left eight dead, including three ox-cart drivers, their animals and an entire family surnamed Zhou.
“The foreign car hit the ox cart first. It soon burst into flames and exploded,” street vendor Gao Ling, 45, told reporters at the scene.
Angered by the reckless collision, a mob of onlookers, intent on dragging a dazed Li from the wreck of his car, was confronted at the scene by local armed police, intent on dragging some kind of cash reward out of Li.
The injured venture capitalist was promptly airlifted to the Shanghai Friendship United Family Hospital’s VIP unit, 2,000 miles away. Some time later, firefighters arrived to extinguish the dead victims.
Li’s survival, courtesy of a $40,000 calfskin ejector-seat that allowed him to land softly on a nearby child, has enraged netizens, however. “Damn this whoreson pig, he should endure seven generations of misery!” began one of the more upbeat comments on the Twitter-like micro-blogging service Weibo.
Fortunately for Li, though, searches for the terms “Ferrari”, “crash” and “death to the undeserving, rich bastard” had already been blocked yesterday on the Chinese mainland, thanks to a series of luxury car crashes involving high-profile leaders’ sons.
Speaking from his queen-sized hospital bed, meanwhile, Li – whose father, a former PLA general, today runs a successful Hello Kitty franchise – argued with reporters that his survival somehow proves that “China does not need democracy.”
Li also moved to answer what he considered some of his harsher critics. “I wish to humbly apologize to the Ferrari Owners’ Association, many of whom were throughly dismayed at the damage done to this beautiful vehicle,” Li said in a prepared statement.
“I understand these fabulous vehicles are never truly owned, merely borrowed from future generations, and I will do my utmost to ensure its proper restoration,” he concluded, adding, “Rest assured, I have several other, ‘borrowed’ Ferrari to safely drive in the meantime.”
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