Originally Posted by Integrale
Difficult discussion.
I always have the feeling that the people who are standing at ridiculously dangerous places (outside of fast corner, close to road after jump, close to a big concrete pole that can fall, etc.) are the ones who don't go to rallies often. They've never seen how a car behaves when the driver loses control. What can happen to the environment. Very unpredictable. I don't even like to stand in some of the 'safe' zones, because I find them too dangerous myself. Every spectator should look after its own risk management, really. But when the knowledge and the experience isn't there about what can happen during a crash, stupid things happen.
And that's when the marshalls are having a crap time. The spectators who don't know what they are doing, are just mad because they can't stand where they want to stand. Experienced spectators can't handle marshall instructions (is my experience), because they find that they KNOW what they're doing. And to be honest... I've met some marshalls who really don't know what they are doing themselves. Who place spectators in really dangerous spots.
In 2011 two people died in Condroz rally in Belgium. A Mitsubishi hit a bridge in a village, and the stones from the bridge were smashed into a 'safe' zone. That zone was at the outside of the corner. The casualties were part of the same family that lived in the neighbourhood, not people who go to rallies that often. In that same rally Freddy Loix got so mad at the behaviour of some of the spectators that he got out of his car to shout at them. With reason.
The only way to get spectators to behave, is unfortunately to cancel more stages during a rally. Then the group dynamic might start to work, and experienced spectators can give a little bit of social control, if you get what I mean. But that's really difficult. I drove in the CC-car (before the 000, 00 and 0) in Rallye Luxembourg, the year the father of Peter Bijvelds died there. The CC-car is the car that is only there to check the safety. So organisers should listen to it. I remember one stage where not all the marshalls were on their position, with 5 minutes before the start. There were spectators on the road. We advised the organisation to delay or cancel the stage, because it was just dangerous. But the start went on as planned.
On that stage, father Bijvelds died. But that's another story. I still think about that a lot.
