12 replies to this topic

[A3]

From Autosport.com:


Colin McRae has broken his cheek and bruised his lung when he crashed out of the Rally Corsica. The Scot went off the road 4km into stage 10, hit a tree and was trapped in the car for around 40 minutes. He was initially unconcious, but came round shortly afterwards and was airlifted to hospital. Co-driver Nicky Grist is OK. The rally was delayed by 1h20m. (Photo: Ralph Hardwick)

He is expected to be released from hospital tonight and will fly home.



Let's hope he'll be OK soon.

[The Swerve]

Been a pretty dark year for Rallying hasn't it.

[Linus27]

The swerve

Why what else has happened??? Have I missed some things??

[The Swerve]

Couple of weeks ago a rally driver was killed when his car rolled (see this weeks Autosport) and also some spectators were killed when someone hit a telegraph pole and it came crashing down on them. One of the dead was a child.

This is all from memory cos I don't have my copies of Autosport with me here at work.

[Linus27]

Oh, that sounds a bit bad. thanks for the info.

[Pascal]

Yeah, this happened at a local rally in France, and 7 people died in the accident, including the driver.

As for McRae, I just saw the in-car footage on TV, and Colin took a turn too early and the car touched the wall on the apex and got launched in the air. It landed a few feet below the road...

[arcwulf7]

I'm never so uneasy in any other form of auto racing as when i watch Rally sports, and its more often than not the cavalier or even danger baiting attitude of spectators to cars careening around dirt corners on a whim and a prayer. I haven't been following rallying too closely so i haven't heard of the tragedies this year, but the in car shots i've seem indicate the roll cage offer pretty good protection for the driver and co driver. I guess the injuries come when something is struck rather than more usual roll into the ditch. Anyway I hope Colin recovers soon and races on.

[Psychoman]

Just got it off AOL, several spectators injured (1 critical) when a Lada went off course in a Polish rally

[Bogwoppit]

Having suffered bruised lungs myself, I can fully empathise with Colin McRea - and, having seen footage of the crash, I think that we should be thankful he came out with as few injuries as he did..

[Ali_G]

But overall I just can't understand Rallying. The spectators are basicly a couple of feet away from the action. Its just far far too dangerous. If the driver was to have a big accident in a crowded area there could be up to 20 people dead. Thats just not on.

Safety has to be improved.

Niall

[Nomad]

If people want to stand that close then they know the risk they take, it's called personal responsibility.
Throwing stones at the rallycars, as happened earlier this season, is an entirely different matter and the idiots involved should be done for attempted manslaughter

[slc]

I was just thinking about the same, Ali.

First of all, it's a very sad thing that spectators (and drivers) get hurt, but with this kind of attitude it's only a matter of time. A few feet from the road on the outside of a high speed corner...the only worse place would be in the middle of the road.
I have wondered many times, when seeing footage from inside the car, that how do the drivers dare to race in some places. The spectators on both side are so close that they could touch the car and at the same time the car is doing ~100kmh...

[Zac]

My Dad is safety officer for a local rally and almost every year they have to cancel stages because the spectators just won't do what they're told. I've been to rallies where people walk up the road as the cars are coming.
When I look at rallying and motorbike racing I always wonder why people make so much fuss about F1 being unsafe.