An as yet unnamed driver crashed a rented Bugatti Veyron on Sunday in what is being described as "the world's costliest road accident".

The £830,000 supercar, which Times columnist Jeremy Clarkson memorably described last year as being “as fast as a Hawker Hurricane” was travelling in the wet at speeds in the region of 100mph along a 40mph stretch of the B375 near Chertsey, Surrey when the driver lost control and collided with a Vauxhall Astra before ploughing into a 3ft bank.

The passenger of the Vauxhall was a pregnant woman who has since been released from hospital after tests.

The full extent of the damage to the Bugatti is still being assessed by specialist engineers, but witnesses describe ‘substantial’ portions of the bodywork as having been torn away by the impact.

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It is a triumph for lunacy over common sense

Jeremy Clarkson

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BACKGROUND

• Graveyard of supercar dreams

• Bugatti Veyron review

• Veyron: Curse of the Bugatti legend

Related Internet Links

• Bugatti Veyron on Top Gear (YouTube)

• Wrecked Exotics: A sports car graveyard

• Bugatti Veyron: Facts & figures

The Veyron, the world's most expensive and fastest street-legal car, is one of a planned limited run of 300 examples, of which fewer than 100 have been so far built.

Early prototypes were rumoured to be unstable at high speeds and indeed a Bugatti test driver came close to crashing in the first public showing of the car at the Laguna Seca circuit in August 2003.

The owner of the vehicle, Kumar Soni, had paid a substantial premium for early delivery only a week before, with a view to renting the car as a £20,000 'driving experience'.

The driver at the centre of Sunday’s incident, initially reported as a rental customer but now believed to be the younger brother of the owner, may find that the experience could yet prove even more costly.