Rome to install new speed cameras on Cristoforo Colombo after fatal collision.
Rome police are investigating the dynamics of a horrific car crash on the Cristoforo Colombo highway in which a 20-year-old woman was killed on Friday night.
Witnesses saw two cars driving side by side at speeds of “150 km per hour” just before the fatal crash, fuelling speculation that an illegal race was under way.
One of the speeding cars, a white BMW 1 Series, rammed into the Mini Cooper in which law student Beatrice Bellucci was a passenger, killing her on impact and crumpling the car against a pine tree.
Bellucci’s 20-year-old friend Silvia Piancazzo, who was driving the Mini Cooper, was trapped inside the car for one hour before firefighters could cut her free from the wreckage.
She remains in a critical but stable condition in intensive care in San Camillo hospital.
The BMW driver, 22-year-old electrician Andrea Girimonte, was questioned by police in San Giovanni hospital on Sunday and is under investigation for vehicular homicide.
Girimonte’s friend of the same age, who was sitting next to him in the car, was uninjured in the crash. Both men tested negative for alcohol and drugs.
Their version of events will be included in the report that traffic police deliver to prosecutors on Monday, along with all the investigations conducted so far into the fatal accident.
Meanwhile police are still searching for the driver of the other speeding car – described by witnesses as possibly a grey BMW – who fled the scene after the crash.
Officers have expanded the scope of their investigation by examining surveillance footage from 10 km before the point of impact, near Piazza dei Navigatori.
Italy’s transport minister Matteo Salvini and Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri called the Bellucci family to offer their condolences, while the capital has brought forward plans to install new speed cameras on Via Cristoforo Colombo.
The parents of Silvia and Beatrice both stressed that their daughters were careful drivers and had nothing whatsoever to do with illegal car racing.
“My darling, she was a treasure, a radiant girl” – Beatrice’s father Andrea Bellucci said in an emotional interview with TGR Lazio – “She and her friend had gone out for dinner… you can’t die like this.”
Photo Beatrice Bellucci
