French rally incident - 2 killed, 17 injured

[sassthathoopie]

A rally car in the Var region of southern France has ploughed through a crowd of spectators, killing two people and injuring 17.

The car left the road at Plan-de-la-Tour, near Toulon on France's Mediterranean coast, after the driver apparently made an error.

One of the dead is said to be a rally marshal and several children are believed to be among those hurt.

BBC Report



Driver is apparently going to be taken into custody. This seems to be a local French custom whenever anyone dies in a sporting incident.

Edited by sassthathoopie on Sunday 20th May 00:13

[Mikey G]

Very sad, wont do the sport much good. But rallying is a dangerous sport.
You have to ask the organisers though why so many people were in such close proximity to a junction. Normally if you have a 'K' off a junction any area straight ahead of that junction is cordoned off as a clear run off area incase of an overshoot. Thats not to say a clear area is 100% safe but it improves the chances of reduced injuries.

[m8rky]

Add that to the death of Roel Volix and Stef Winters during a Rally in Belgium on Saturday as well it has not been a good weekend for european closed road events.Even worse with the death of Mark Buckley at the NW200.


http://www.hbvl.be/limburg/bocholt/burgemeester-va...

[vtgts300kw]

Looks like a mahoosive shunt, the cage is bent?

I'm going to assume he went straight on and stayed the right way up, spectators too close?