A tragic incident at a rally in the town of Utena, north east of Lithuania, on Friday night killed one person and injured over a dozen more when a driver crashed into a crowd.
Eighty-five cars started in the rally in Utena on Friday night that was interrupted by a tragic accident. One car, driven by a Latvian driver, skidded off the track and crashed into a crowd of spectators, killing one young man, aged 21, and injuring 14 others.
The reason why the racer failed to negotiate a sudden turn and drove off the road is still under investigation.
Kristina, one of the spectators at the event, speculated that the driver might not have noticed the hay bales with arrow signs near the turn.
“It was not dark here. In fact it was like this: there were rolls [of hay] everywhere and another crew of rallyists knocked them down and it was either the Latvian’s fault for not seeing that the turn was sharp or he was braking but not fast enough,” the witness told LRT TV.
She believes that the spectators also failed to choose a safe spot to observe the race.
“To the parents of the deceased, my condolences. To the injured, may they get well soon,” Kristina added.
Motorsport expert Arnas Paliukėnas says that darkness should not be a factor when it comes to the safety of rally participants and spectators. The drivers follow pacenotes describing the route so they know where the sharp turns are.
“The specifics of the rally is that you don’t just drive as you see it, you have a steward by your side who reads you the pacenotes where everything is written down, all the details of the route are marked,” explains Paliukėnas.
Giedrius Notkus, a racer who took part in the event, says organisers had done everything to ensure safety at the race.
He said racers study the turns and therefore do not need additional signs. The accident occurred at a 90-degree left turn, the driver had to brake and drop speed while approaching it.
“As far as I could see from the video, because the race was at night, there were no extra lights, they didn’t see very well and didn’t appreciate the situation that the turn was coming and either made a mistake or perhaps there was also a technical fault,” says Notkus.
While the investigation is ongoing, the organisers of Samsonas Rally Utena are refraining from extensive comments. In a written statement, they say that the security of the event was ensured by a large security force.
“The circumstances of the tragic accident are atypical due to a possible error by the crew, when the sports car, instead of slowing down considerably and negotiating a corner, went straight and went much further off the road than could have been anticipated,” they said on Saturday.
A pre-trial investigation has been opened by the law enforcement. The Lithuanian Motor Sport Federation launched its own probe.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
