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Ferrari driver’s widow says sorry for ‘driving error’

The wife of the Ferrari driver involved in last Saturday’s fatal traffic accident in Bugis has apologised to families of the other victims.

In a post on popular Chinese microblogging site Weibo, 28-year-old He Tingting, wife of private investor Ma Chi, said her family will not ignore what had happened, and will “deal responsibly” with its consequences.

“We apologise to the families of the taxi driver and his female passenger who were killed by Ma Chi’s driving error,” she wrote in Mandarin, as quoted in Lianhe Wanbao on Friday evening.

He added that her family will “deal responsibly with whatever comes after”, and that she is waiting for the outcome of the police report on the accident.

52-year-old taxi driver Cheng Teck Hock, succumbed to his injuries on Sunday in Tan Tock Seng Hospital. The sole breadwinner leaves behind a wife and three school-going children.

Shigemi Ito, a 41-year-old Japanese woman, also died in hospital.

Another two people -- 26-year-old motorcyclist Muhammad Najib Ghazali and Wu Wei Wei, a young Chinese national who was in the passenger seat of the Ferrari, were also injured.

He also expressed concern for student Wu, although she said she did not personally know her.

In her post, He also rebutted reports and rumours that her husband was the son of senior Chinese government official Ma Kai, who is secretary-general of China’s cabinet State Council. She also denied that Ma was born into wealth.

“We are not guan er dai (children of officials) or fu er dai (children of tycoons). We are undeserving of those titles,” she wrote.

He, who is now a housewife, reportedly gave up her career as a news anchor in Sichuan to move to Singapore with her husband three years ago. She is also a director for the Singapore Tian Fu Association, which largely looks after the interest of Sichuan Chinese nationals in Singapore, according to The Straits Times.

“Our whole family is in the midst of celebrating the arrival of a new life, but we have also suffered a blow,” she reportedly said in her post. “Please understand and respect us. Ma Chi has already paid a very heavy price for his actions.”