Editing Giacomo Puccini (section)

===Automobile crash and near-death===
On 25 February 1903, Puccini was seriously injured in a car crash during a nighttime journey on the road from Lucca to [[Torre del Lago]]. The car was driven by Puccini's chauffeur and was carrying Puccini, his future wife Elvira, and their son Antonio. It went off the road, fell several metres, and flipped over. Elvira and Antonio were flung from the car and escaped with minor injuries. Puccini's chauffeur, also thrown from the car, suffered a serious fracture of his femur. Puccini was pinned under the vehicle, with a severe fracture of his right leg and with a portion of the car pressing down on his chest. A doctor living near the scene of the crash, together with another person who came to investigate, saved Puccini from the wreckage.<ref>{{cite news |date=27 February 1903 |title=Una disgrazia automobilistica al maestro Puccini |newspaper=La Stampa}}</ref> The injury did not heal well, and Puccini remained under treatment for months. During the medical examinations that he underwent it was also found that he was suffering from a form of diabetes.{{sfn|Phillips-Matz|2002|p=123}} The accident and its consequences slowed Puccini's completion of his next work, ''Madama Butterfly''.