Spectator accident Rally of Turkey

[JAM]

Was the spectator asked to move a number of times?

That isn't relevant.

[Daniel]

That isn't relevant.

It's VERY relevant. If the spectator was asked to move then as far as I'm concerned it's their fault they got hurt.

[Oppositelock]

It's relevant, but in a different way. When a spectator doesn't follow the instructions of a marshal it's the marshal's responsibility to inform the stage commander (hope it's the right word). If further action doen't help, the stage has to be stopped. And that's not only from a legal point of view. There's no such public opinion like "it's there own fault" when a spectator gets hurt in any kind of motorsport.

[sal]

Disclaimers on stage should warn the spectator that motorsport is dangerous and that they are ultimately responsible for their own safety and absolve the organisers etc of responsibility for their own actions. If they are stood in an area previously considered unsafe and that they also ignore the "advice" of a marshal who after all has no legal powers then again that is their decision. The choice of the official or spectator control is whether to allow the stage to run at all even if it is only one person who is the problem. From all the heat here am I detecting the faint stale whiff of litigation? If so it's a very slippery slope we face...

[cali]

But what really happened then???? Everybody has some arguements, but nobody does not know nothing for sure. If anybody has some information, please let us know too. Otherwise too much speculations.

[Daniel]

Disclaimers on stage should warn the spectator that motorsport is dangerous and that they are ultimately responsible for their own safety and absolve the organisers etc of responsibility for their own actions. If they are stood in an area previously considered unsafe and that they also ignore the "advice" of a marshal who after all has no legal powers then again that is their decision. The choice of the official or spectator control is whether to allow the stage to run at all even if it is only one person who is the problem. From all the heat here am I detecting the faint stale whiff of litigation? If so it's a very slippery slope we face...

I was thinking that too. If everything was alright and sorted you'd probably hear about it. Something similar happened in Australia at some stage. Someone got hit in the head with a rock and sued the rally and the spectators were then put in pens and put miles away from the road. Of course a balance between safety and spectacle must be achieved and I don't know the details of the incident in Australia so I can't comment on it with a great degree of certainty but if there is litigation here it could have a significant impact upon rallying as a whole in Europe.

[Daniel]

It's relevant, but in a different way. When a spectator doesn't follow the instructions of a marshal it's the marshal's responsibility to inform the stage commander (hope it's the right word). If further action doen't help, the stage has to be stopped. And that's not only from a legal point of view. There's no such public opinion like "it's there own fault" when a spectator gets hurt in any kind of motorsport.

I don't know about that. There will be witnesses and so on and depending on what happened a court would decide that the spectator is at fault or not. It's not like this happens often at WRC events. It also depends if the marshal had a radio or any way of communicating this to the stage commander. If the spectator was ignoring the marshal and there are witnesses to this and he had no way of stopping the stage then it's 150% the spectators fault and he should pay the driver and marshal damages for being an idiot. We need to stop this whole "It's someone elses fault" mentality and take responsibility for our own actions.

[Larry_Japan]

Sousa's car (not a rock) left the road at speed, near the SS start, and hit a spectator, severely injuring both his (spectator's) legs. Current condition unknown.

[N.O.T]

well the crew is never at fault when an accident like this happens...if the spectator sits in a bad location then its his fault and if he sits in a safe place then he must be very very unlucky to get hit...in either case the driver is innocent. Props to mr Sousa who stopped his rally to see the condition of the spectator, hope he fully recovers and continues to follow rallying.

[Saabaru]

The spectator knew what he was doing, why is this even an issue? I have spectated a number of events and enjoy getting close to the action, but I always find some sort of barrier to protect myself (trees, dirt embankments, stone walls, traffic barriers, ect..). Why would anyone even consider it being anyone’s fault but the spectator's own? This is just Darwin’s theory of natural selection at work.