Rosario, Argentina: Poor weather has forced the cancellation of yesterday’s Dakar Rally opening stage because of safety concerns, race director Etienne Lavigne said, a day after ten people were injured when a car crashed into spectators.
Thunderstorms and heavy rain prompted organisers to scrap the scheduled 600-kilometre plus route from Rosario to Villa Carlos Paz, with the conditions grounding safety helicopters and leaving parts of the course flooded.
“The Dakar doesn’t stop when it rains but when it’s not possible to guarantee the normal security presence” for the rally, Lavigne explained.
“The weather conditions are very bad. The relay plane (which helps with radio communications) was unable to fly. Helicopters can’t take off. The situation isn’t going to improve in terms of visibility,” he added.
The first stage was supposed to include a 258km timed special for cars and a 227km section for motorcycles, but the entire field will instead travel to Cordoba under link section conditions.
The 38th edition of the Dakar Rally, which will cover more than 9,300km across Argentina and Bolivia, commenced with Saturday’s prologue which was “neutralised” and then immediately suspended after a crash involving the Mini of Chinese driver Guo Meiling left 10 people hurt. A 10-year-old boy and his father were seriously injured and underwent surgery overnight, with Lavigne adding both were in a “stable condition”.
However, Lavigne said the condition of a third man “deteriorated in the night” with doctors offering a “guarded prognosis”.
“The joint resources of the organization and local forces have taken over and evacuated four injured, including two seriously affected,” organisers said in a statement early yesterday.
“Police have indicated that six more lightly injured have been transferred to hospital.”
The incident, which involved the Mini of Chinese driver Guo Meiling, saw the prologue -- which takes place before the first stage -- “neutralised” and immediately suspended in horrific scenes, race organisers said.
Guo’s car veered off the course at the 6.6-kilometer mark of the 11-kilometer prologue on a stretch of straight country road near Arrecifes, a small town 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.
Race chiefs immediately deployed four medical helicopters, three medical vehicles belonging to the organisers and eight local ambulances to the scene of the accident.
The injured were brought to hospital at Arrecifes, with the two more seriously injured later transferred to a hospital at Pilar, 50km from Buenos Aires.
“In total, we had 10 patients, including four children and one pregnant woman, who is ok,” said Daniel Modesto, head of the local hospital.
“Medical assessments are ongoing,” organisers added.
The accident left Guo’s car battered, its bonnet strewn on the ground, as emergency workers carted the injured off on stretchers. An inquiry has been opened by local authorities with the Chinese team to be questioned by police shortly. Between 50,000 and 60,000 people were expected along the route of the prologue.
In 2015, Polish motorbike rider Michal Hernik died at the end of a stage, but the last accident involving spectators at the Dakar Rally was in 2011, when one person was killed.
Nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb had safely negotiated the prologue in his debut on the Dakar Rally.
Dutchman Bernhard ten Brinke, driving a Toyota, had claimed victory, taking 6min 08sec to cover the 11 km special, beating Carlos Sainz (Peugeot) and Xavier Pons (Ford Ranger).
Frenchman Loeb is seeking to follow in the footsteps of Ari Vatanen, who won the Dakar in his first attempt in 1987, back when it was raced in Africa.
“It was important to clear the prologue and avoid any mistakes on the first day,” said Loeb, driving a Peugeot 2008 DKR, having raced almost exclusively for another French manufacturer, Citroen. AFP
