if you're a spectator at a stage rally, you have one job

Stand on the inside of the berkeleying corner. I don't care that you can "see the cars coming" or get a better view from the outside, if they go off, they're going off to the outside, it's physics. The driver might clip the apex or even cut the corner by a few feet, but if they manage to grab too much, unsettle the chassis and roll, guess what they're rolling to the outside.

6 spectators in Spain lost their lives, not due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but because they were berkeleying dumbasses and the stage Marshall didn't have control of their stage. Piss poor education of spectators with enforceable penalties for those who violate spectating guidelines needs to happen and Marshalls need accountability on enforcing the rules once penalties can be placed on spectators.

I'm not posting to an article that includes a video link

That sucks. I'm truly surprised there aren't more spectator injuries and fatalities in rally racing.

I thought their job was to flip the car back over when it rolls.

To bad people paid ignorance with their lives.

KyAllroad wrote: That sucks. I'm truly surprised there aren't more spectator injuries and fatalities in rally racing.

You should see everything we do to try keep it safe. Then some dummies decide to ninja-spectate and ruin it for everyone

As the captain said - Outsides of corners are an absolute no-no.

RIP to those that have passed and I hope the 20 injured heal.

I was actually guilty of this once. Back in 2002, we went to the Maine Forest Pro Rally for the first time. We arrived a little late and hiked to a spectator area deep into the woods. The inside of the curve was packed with spectators but there was a hill on the other side that only had a few people on it, so we crossed the course before the first car came through. We watched a couple of sweep vehicles go through at a pretty good clip and thought it was really cool.

About a minute later, came the most amazing sound that I had ever heard. That year, Subaru and Prodrive had brought over a handful of genuine WRC cars. Our absolute astonishment at the speed that those things carried through the woods was followed immediately by a pelting with dirt and baseball sized rocks. We knew we were in the wrong place, but the first six cars came through so quickly that we were afraid to cross. We backed off and took shelter behind the biggest trees that we could find. We agreed never to make that mistake again. As a bonus, it was a drought year and the dust was unreal.

As if being rewarded for our own stupidity, we somehow ended up spending the weekend with a bunch people from Subaru, we got some free swag, and met Ramana Lagemann and the late Mark Lovell, both great guys and both were very patient with out rookie spectator questions.

I also remember that David Lapworth stood out from the crowd, using his satellite phone. All weekend we would see people standing on hills holding their cell phones up trying to get a signal. It was kind of funny, they looked like they were praying to the cellular gods.

I've been up close for Formula 1 and NHRA races, but there is absolutely nothing that compares to the sight and sound of a WRC car tearing through the woods at speed.

A few weeks later, I bought a new WRX.

KyAllroad wrote: That sucks. I'm truly surprised there aren't more spectator injuries and fatalities in rally racing.

My uncle shared the Facebook link to the news to me last night, and I pretty much replied the same thing.

reply to Woody:

The first rally I ever spectated was sawmill, kinda turned me into the safety police regarding spectator behavior. It's killing me not being able to get up to BRS in a few weeks, the drive up in the new car would be amazing as well

Jerry wrote:

KyAllroad wrote: That sucks. I'm truly surprised there aren't more spectator injuries and fatalities in rally racing.

My uncle shared the Facebook link to the news to me last night, and I pretty much replied the same thing.

It doesn't have to be dangerous.

Volunteer at a stage rally and watch the effort that is expended to make it safe.

I have been doing this for 15 years. I started the Safety Plan for the 2014 Rally of the Tall Pines 5 days before the 2013 version started!!

In reply to NGTD:

Agreed 10 minutes of active listening and instruction of spectators being given by volunteers who attended a meeting run by stage Marshalls would prevent 99% of these incidents.

captdownshift wrote: In reply to NGTD: Agreed 10 minutes of active listening

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

(breathes)

Hahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Unless you can corral spectators into a controlled area with a proper amount of guides, good luck with that. Especially when that person is a drunken shiny happy person, what is a volunteer going to do about that?

Unfortunately, it is what it is. If people are actively removed from spectating, there isn't really much of a point in spectating (NASCAR is as interesting in person as it is on the TV, same thing with Global Rallycross, it actually might be better on tv as you can see more of the action). So there is no good solution.

In reply to HiTempguy:

Don't tell Jens, but I always have pepper spray when volunteering. If the spray can hit you on the outside, then a softball sized rock could Crack your skull from that range, or worse.

I feel for the driver and co-driver of the incident in Spain and the families of the ignorantly stupid.

i have a hard time feeling sorry for anyone that gets injured or killed because of their own stupidity and/or ignorance.

if you don't know that a car that is going 100mph into a turn is going to keep going straight if something goes wrong, then that's on you..

I have had to threaten idiots in trucks trying to drive onto an active rally stage, when told there was racing cars coming towards them, they replied "We don't care we are in trucks.

That was the point I advised them that any forward motion would be taken as a threat to the crews in the cars and they would be arrested.

It worked and I was a legend for a little while, but berk me some people are complete turds.

aussiesmg wrote: It worked and I was a legend for a little while, but berk me some people are complete turds.

Steve, you are still a legend, and some people will continue to be complete turds.

While I find it difficult to feel sorry for people who were probably too ignorant to survive much longer anyway, I DO feel sorry for the loss that the people who cared for them are going through.

I've never spectated at a stage rally but I feel that I would want to have a broad enough view that I could see the cars covering as much ground as possible. Preferably through a couple corners at least. Maybe up high, like up in a tree or something. I don't get the appeal of being right next to the course, you can't get any idea of how they are actually driving from there.

captdownshift wrote: ...penalties for those who violate spectating guidelines needs to happen...

You could say those spectators were punished severely for violating guidelines.

Never had the privilege of being at a stage rally, but spectated at a few Hill Climbs that had their act together when it came to spectator location. I have been to a few drift events that had no concept of safety or where spectators should be, they some how thought yellow caution tape was a viable protective barrier for spectators, or that the large plastic barricades you normally fill with water to make them less mobile would suffice only empty so it only took two guys to reset the wall when a car hit it. I paid very close attention to where I was standing at those events.

I always find the biggest tree and stand on the far side of it...

In reply to hobiercr:

that's a safe location to stand, though the photographer should have a spotter with them [edit] and a high visibility vest [/edit]

Oddly enough, the only time I ever spectated at a stage rally was at Sno*Drift and the spectator area was on the outside of the curve.

Everything was also glare ice and people were coming through at maybe 10mph, but still.

grafmiata wrote:

aussiesmg wrote: It worked and I was a legend for a little while, but berk me some people are complete turds.

Steve, you are still a legend, and some people will continue to be complete turds. While I find it difficult to feel sorry for people who were probably too ignorant to survive much longer anyway, I DO feel sorry for the loss that the people who cared for them are going through.

i don't. but i'm a cold hearted SOB. i just hope that they didn't breed before being taken out by their own stupidity.

Well the FIA and Carlos Sainz have decided to get involved. I think Sainz is the kind of level-headed person that could help this out. The FIA, well we'll see how that goes based on their history.

http://www.racer.com/latest-stories/item/121184-todt-calls-fia-rally-safety-meeting

BTW, a 7th person has died (another child). RIP