Italian police on Friday searched the
home of Matteo Di Pietro, a 20-year-old YouTuber being probed
for vehicular homicide and injury in relation to the death of a
five-year-old Roman boy named Manuel, judicial sources said.
Di Pietro, 20, was driving an SUV Lamborghini that crashed into
a Smart driven by the boy's mother, who was seriously hurt along
with his four-year-old sister in the accident in the Casal
Palocco neighbourhood in south Rome on Wednesday.
Prosecutors suspect Di Pietro and four others in the SUV were
taking part in a YouTube challenge, filming their fast-driving
exploits for the Web, when he collided with the Smart having
taken his eyes off the road.
Di Pietro and his four passengers, three men and a woman, all
his age, all reportedly belonged to the Roman collective The
Borderline, which films and posts "absurd and unique" videos on
its YouTube channel, followed by 600,000 subscribers.
On Friday the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office said it would
entrust a consultant with analysing Di Pietro's mobile phone to
see if he filmed any videos before, during or after the crash.
The telephones of the four young passengers are also to be
examined in order to reconstruct the circumstances of the crash.
Police are gathering testimony from witnesses and other members
of the collective, whose headquarters will also be searched.
However, for now only Di Pietro has been placed under
investigation.
Meanwhile, Transport Minister and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini
said Friday the government is to present a road safety bill to
clamp down on incidents such as Wednesday night's crash.
He also cited an overnight case of a driver who failed a drug
and alcohol test after killing a boy on a zebra crossing at
Volvera near Turin.
Salvini said he had asked those framing the bill to crack down
further on people using their phones while driving, announcing
"regulations of absolute severity".
"Since common sense is not enough, people will have to be
afraid, really afraid, to get behind the wheel drugged or
drunk," said the minister, adding that "on 8the use of) mobile
phones I have asked the traffic police for a special clampdown".
Under the new rules, Salvini said newly licensed drivers will
not be allowed to drive "big cars because it is not smart to put
someone who has had his licence for one year behind the wheel of
a Lamborghini, Porche or anything else. They will have to wait".
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