Following hard on the heels of the highly publicised crash in the spring that saw a Swedish businessman crash a Ferrari Enzo in Malibu, California, and wind up serving a jail sentence, and a second smash in August in the US state of Utah, another Enzo has been crashed in dramatic circumstances; this time an example belonging to a Russian Member of the Duma. This report, by Nikolai Sergeev is courtesy of today’s edition of Kommersant.

Suleiman Kerimov, the Russian businessman listed by Forbes as the 72nd richest person in the world, was seriously injured on Saturday in an automobile accident in Nice, France. He lost control of his Ferrari Enzo, which struck a tree at an enormous speed and burst into flames, as he was travelling from the local airport toward the city center. Kerimov was taken by helicopter to the regional burn center at Hopital de la Conception in Marseille. He is now on artificial respiration.

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The accident occurred at about 3:30 p.m. on a stretch of the Promenade des Anglais where the speed limit is 50 km/h. Kerimov himself was behind the wheel and moving significantly faster then the speed limit when the black Ferrari unexpectedly crossed the sidewalk and struck a tree. Kerimov and his passenger were pulled from the burning car by passersby, who also tried to extinguish the flames using clothing and rugs. It took fire brigades from the Nice airport to dowse the flames, however. The accident caused a two-hour traffic jam on the busy highway.

Police and an emergency helicopter appeared on the scene within moments. The helicopter took the seriously injured Kerimov to the burn centre in Marseille. The female passenger in the car, who was less seriously inured, was taken to Saint Roch Hospital in Nice. A spokesman at the Russian consulate in Marseille, which also serves the Riviera, told Kommersant that they were maintaining “control” over the situation and that official information would be available on Monday. A spokesman for the Nice police commissariat, Kommersant was told that the judicial police investigate road transport incidents. He refused to comment on the speed at which the Ferrari was travelling or to give the name of Kerimov’s passenger. At the Maritime Alps Department police prefecture, they acknowledged that Kerimov may have been the victim of his own driving carelessness.