Several people have called the police about donating money to a young driver who crashed into four Ferraris over the weekend, the New Taipei City Police Department’s Sindian Precinct said on Tuesday.
The calls were from people inquiring about ways to reach the driver, because they wanted to help financially, police said.
The 20-year-old, who was identified only by his surname Lin (林), was out on a delivery at about 5:40am on Sunday, when he nodded off and crashed into four parked Ferraris near Danlan Suspension Bridge in New Taipei City’s Shihding District (石碇).
Photo copied by Hsu Sheng-lun, Taipei Times
There were no reported injuries, police said.
Lin was given a Breathalyzer test, which found that his blood-alcohol level was zero.
As of press time last night, the Ferrari owners could not be reached for comment.
Technicians at the Ferrari dealership in Taipei said the combined value of the four Italian supercars is more than NT$60 million (US$1.95 million) and it would cost an estimated NT$10 million to repair them.
The incident has sparked a media frenzy, due to the size of the repair bills and because Lin comes from a single-parent family and had to drop out of college to help his mother, who runs a small joss paper store in New Taipei City’s Shenkeng District (深坑).
Lin’s mother said that her son works at a barbecue restaurant during the day and helps deliver joss paper in his spare time after work.
After the accident, Lin apologized to the Ferrari owners, saying that he would do everything he can to pay for the repairs.
The precinct said it would pass on the contact details of those who called about making donations.
The New Taipei City Social Welfare Department said that a special account has also been created for individuals who wish to make donations to help Lin.
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