Highway/Class Collision in Rio

In Brazil Cyclist’s Death, a Clash Between Wealth and Life on the Fringes (New York Times, 31 March 2012)

Thor Batista, the 20-year-old son of Brazil’s richest man, was driving back one night in March from a meal at a steakhouse in the mountains above Rio. He was on a highway at the steering wheel of his father’s $1.3 million sports car, a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.

Wanderson Pereira dos Santos, 30, who lived in a shack at the highway’s edge and worked unloading trailer trucks, was on his bicycle, on an errand to buy flour. His wife was preparing to bake a cake. They were celebrating her birthday.

When Mr. Batista’s McLaren suddenly smashed into Mr. Pereira dos Santos, killing him instantly, it was clear that more than the two men collided on that stretch of highway.

Two Brazils also met head-on: one in which a small elite live with almost unfathomable wealth, and another in which millions eke out an existence on the margins of that abundance…

Roadside deaths are so common that they rarely register with such national prominence. By various measures, Brazil is grappling with a surge in traffic fatalities. The country registered more than 40,600 traffic deaths in 2010, a nearly 25 percent increase from 2002….

But the crash that killed Mr. Pereira dos Santos has awakened a debate over wealth, influence and traffic deaths, similar to a Chinese case in 2010 in which the son of a powerful official struck a poor farm girl, stirring an outcry…