A boy aged 10 and her father 34 years old were seriously injured during the prologue of the Dakar 2016, Saturday in the Buenos Aires region, when a car is off the road and came to the hit, leading the interruption of the race.
A total of ten people – all the spectators – were injured in the accident, the other eight more lightly, according to the latest toll released in the evening by the organizers.
“The joint resources of the organization and local forces have taken over and evacuated four injured, including two seriously affected” , they write in a second statement. “The police said that six more people were affected slightly taken to hospital” , they add. One of the two seriously injured suffered head injuries, the other chest trauma, said Etienne Lavigne, director of the Dakar. Initially, he had reported to AFP two people “in a situation of absolute urgency, three in relative emergency” and five minor injuries.
This is a Chinese crew of the pilot Guo Meiling, who discovered the Dakar this year, and the co-pilot Liao Min who is involved in the accident. N.360 The car left the road and came to hit a group of spectators in a long straight, at the kilometer 6.6 of the special prologue connecting the capital of Argentina in Rosario (346 km), which had eleven .
The circumstances of the accident, which occurred at 5:59 p.m. local (9:59 p.m. French) near Arrecifes, a small town in the north of the province of Buenos Aires, to be determined. An investigation was opened by the local authorities and the Chinese crew is soon to be heard by the police.
The ten injured spectators were transported initially to the Arrecifes hospital. Then the two most seriously affected have been transferred in the evening to a hospital in Pilar, about fifty kilometers from Buenos Aires. “Medical assessments are ongoing”, said the organizers.
In 2010, for the second edition of the Dakar in South America, 4×4 overrun the German-Swiss duo Mirco Schultis-Ulrich Leardi had caused the death of a young spectator 28 years.
The race had hitherto taken a starting gently sloping debut for Sebastien Loeb, nine-time world champion rally, the Dakar.
If the pre-start podium last year, in the heart of Buenos Aires, had displaced some 650,000 people, the crowd was much less numerous Tecnopolis Saturday from the city of sciences of the Argentine capital, just outside from the city. Then face the start of the stage, on the other bank of the river, the curious were enjoying a barbecue before the passage of the first competitors. Further, supported along fences, sitting on aligned or sometimes even climbed chairs on the truck roof, Argentine flag hoisted, other spectators followed the first laps of the 2016 edition.
Before the accident, the 136 riders had completed the 11 km course, like the 45 quad drivers, the first to jump. The best time on two wheels was directed by Joan Barreda Bort Spanish (Honda) and Ruben Faria Portuguese (Husqvarna).
In the car category, 59 teams finished the special, the main favorites – Mini and Peugeot – who held their rank.
Loeb himself has rather successful debut on the Dakar. He signed the same time as his illustrious team-mate at Peugeot, Stéphane Peterhansel (11 titles). Both concluded the prologue to 9 seconds behind the leader, Dutchman Bernhard Ten Brinke (Toyota).
“It was important not to make any mistakes. I made a good first stage. That was the purpose of being in contact, the goal was not to be before” insisted Loeb.
The times of cars arrived before the neutralization of the race are kept, while 51 other teams will have a time limit, the terms of which remain to be defined by the organizers. Sunday, the rain could invite in the first stage from Rosario in Villa Carlos Paz.
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