The yellow Mustang was travelling at high speed when it tried to overtake a trash cart, according to police

Police arrested the driver of a sports car after his high-speed overtaking manoeuvre on a city street ended in the death of his passenger.

Mr Chau, 31, had been driving south on Nathan Road in a late-model yellow Ford Mustang at around 4am this morning when he attempted to overtake a trash cart travelling in the same direction. But as he overtook, near the Eaton Hotel in Yau Ma Tei, the garbage truck also pulled out and Chau’s car struck the rear of that truck with some force.

“You can say the private car was travelling at high speed,” says a police spokeswoman.

The collision proved fatal for Chau’s passenger, Mr Lam, also 31, who was taken unconscious to Queen Elizabeth hospital and declared dead just after 7am. Chau himself was taken to the same hospital conscious and was arrested for dangerous driving causing death.

The deadly crash came just hours after a car driver skipped a set of lights in Sha Tin and rammed a minibus, flipping it over and killing its 57-year-old driver.