Italian car-design company chief Pininfarina dies in crash

Aug 7, 2008, 11:09 GMT

Turin, Italy - Andrea Pininfarina, the scion of one of Italy's most celebrated car-design companies, died Thursday when a scooter he was riding was hit by a car. He was 51.

Pininfarina, president and CEO of Pininfarina, the company founded by his grandfather in 1930, was apparently on his way to work when the accident occurred on a road outside the north-western city of Turin, traffic police said.

Pininfarina was riding a Vespa scooter when he was hit by a car driven by a 78-year-old man who was not injured in the accident but was being treated for shock.

The name Pininfarina is associated with the sleek designs of some of the most famous Ferrari sports cars models, including the Ferrari Testarossa.

Andrea Pininfarina, an engineer by training, ran the family company and in the past also served as deputy president of Confindustria, the main Italian industrialists group.

Trading in stocks of Pininfarina which is listed on the Milan bourse were suspended following news of his death.

'Italy, Turin and the whole of the Fiat Group have lost a model-entrepreneur who was able to follow and innovate the work of his grandfather Pinin and his father Sergio,' said Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, president of the Turin-based Fiat, Italy's largest car company and owner of Ferrari.

The car design and coach-building company was founded by Battista 'Pinin' Farina - whose surname and nickname were combined to form the brand name.

Pininfarina, based in Cambiano, near Turin, has designed cars for Ferrari as well as for Japan's Mitsubishi, Korea's Daewoo and Hyundai, Cadillac in the US and France's Peugeot.

The company employs more than 3,000 people in several locations in Europe, as well as in Morocco and China.