China jails ‘Fast & Furious’ Lamborghini, Ferrari drivers

Chinese officials inspect the mangled wreckage of a Lamborghini that was damaged in a high-speed illegal road race in Beijing, on April 12, 2015. - AFP/File

BEIJING, May 21, 2015 (AFP) - Two unemployed men who crashed a Lamborghini and Ferrari as they reportedly staged a “real-life Fast and Furious” race through Beijing were sentenced to jail Thursday for dangerous driving, the court said.

According to reports a woman passenger in Tang Weitian’s green Lamborghini was left with a broken spine in the accident. The other driver Yu Muchun, 20, drove a red Ferrari.

Tang, 21, was sentenced to five months in prison and fined 10,000 yuan ($1,600), Beijing’s Chaoyang District People’s Court said in an online post.

Yu was jailed for four months and given an 8,000 yuan fine, it added, saying both men indicated they would not appeal.

The official news agency Xinhua described the accident last month as the result of a “real-life‘Fast and Furious’ drag race in downtown Beijing”.

Pictures of the high-performance cars’ mangled wreckage in a tunnel in the Chinese capital provoked intense public interest, especially when police announced the men were unemployed.   Later reports said that Tang was a former pool champion.

A high-speed Ferrari crash in Beijing in March 2012 killed the son of Ling Jihua, a close ally of then-president Hu Jintao. Two women passengers, one of them naked, were both injured.

The incident added to public perceptions in China of corrupt and high-living officials, and Ling has since been investigated for graft and dismissed from his post.