Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: CEN

A cyclist has been left fighting for his life after he was struck head on by a wealthy 23-year-old businessman doing a test drive in a high-performance McLaren car.

The tragedy involving the 570-hp high-performance car happened on the Gempenstrasse which is in the municipality of Dornach located in Switzerland’s north-western canton of Solothurn.

The road, which snakes through thick forest glades and with constantly changing gradients, is regarded as challenging and care is needed.

Pictures Credit: CEN/@qoneo & CEN

However, police say all the indications are that the 23-year-old Swiss man who was test driving the McLaren had not been careful and been travelling far too quickly.

It was reportedly a machine that he had borrowed to test drive and was hoping to purchase from the car dealer Qoneo AG located in the nearby Swiss municipality of Muenchenstein.

The company’s managing director Stefan Stucki, 40, said: “Normally we do not allow people to do test drives in high-performance cars like this, but he was regarded as a serious buyer and he definitely had the financial resources to make the purchase.”

He said that the man who was a well known young entrepreneur had arrived in a Porsche, and they had every reason to believe he was not planning to abuse their trust.

However eyewitnesses told police that the sports car had been dangerously overtaking other vehicles on the road travelling towards Gempen, resulting eventually in the near-fatal crash.

The cyclist was travelling down hill reasonably quickly and had no chance to avoid the McLaren, and smashed into it head first, according to local media.

The blow left the windscreen of the car broken, and although the car driver was unhurt, the critically injured cyclist was airlifted to hospital. A police spokesman at the time described the situation of the 38-year-old as critical.

The car dealership boss Stucki added: “We are incredibly sorry about this. If we had any idea of how he was going to behave we would never have given him the car to try.”

The road was closed after the accident for several hours and the car, the model of which has not been disclosed, has been confiscated by police while the investigation continues.

It is unclear if the businessman has been arrested.