Tragedy in the Dakar: a fan who was enjoying the ninth stage of the rally has died after being hit by a truck that was participating in the race. The pilot, Ales Loprais, has given up and has put himself at the service of the authorities: he did not see the fan.
Unfortunately, one more year, we have to talk about a death in the Dakar Rally. An Italian fan, who was watching the race in the Saudi desert, has lost his life after suffering an unfortunate accident, when he was hit by a truck participating in the race.
The spectator was evacuated by helicopter, but unfortunately died during transport to a hospital. The fan was enjoying the toughest competition in the world in one of the many dunes of the route of the ninth stage, which has consisted of 378 timed kilometers, between Riyadh and Haradh.
The organization of the race reported what happened last night in a statement, but did not give details about the accident. However, the images of the accident did not take long to come to light, and in them it was seen how a truck participating in the Dakar, the one driven by Ales Loprais, hit a spectator who was behind a jump, on the line, and out of the pilot’s field of vision.
Loprais, as he later explained in a video posted on his Facebook account, neither saw the viewer nor was he aware of the accident. The Czech driver regretted what happened and left the race, after making himself available to the authorities to collaborate with the relevant investigation.
“The (Dakar) stewards showed me a video in which we mistakenly hit a man who was taking photos of his wife behind a dune. He was injured, felt nauseated and dizzy for the next few hours and suffered a heart attack when was taken to the hospital,” said Loprais, who was one of the favorites in the truck category
“A human life has ended because of me, indirectly, because I was driving. Neither I nor my colleagues realized it, but we have the onboard cameras and other videos that prove it. I want to express my condolences to his family and friends. I am very sorry for the accident, which will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
It is the first fatality in this edition of the Dakar, but not in its recent history, since in the last two years the motorcycle racer Pierre Cherpin and Quentin Lavalée, chief mechanic of the PH Sport team, who were driving a car of assistance when he suffered an accident in a link at the end of the Dakar 2022.
Regarding the placement of the fans, a few days ago, on January 6, we saw how Stéphane Peterhansel almost ran over three people who were sitting on a chair at the top of a dune, with no chance of being seen by the pilot until he passed through that same place. That could also end in tragedy.
Throughout the history of the Dakar, a total of 74 deaths have been recorded, including participants, drivers, co-drivers and team members, as well as fans, journalists or residents of the areas where the race has passed in its 45 editions.
