Aleš Loprais ended the Dakar Rally in an unfortunate collision during which he caught a spectator. But a few meters were enough and no tragedy would have happened.
An unfortunate collision with a spectator ended Loprais’ hopes of a first ever Dakar triumph. The current leader of the truck classification withdrew from the demonstration and on Wednesday he participated in the investigation into the causes of the clash with local authorities.
What really happened at the start of the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally on Tuesday?
The course took the contestants over mild dunes. Some pilots described them as “crushed” and approached them accordingly: full throttle with the aim of losing as little as possible.
Four-time Dakar Rally winner Carlos Sainz, who sent his Audi onto the roof, convinced himself of how treacherous such low sandbanks are after just a few kilometres. The 60-year-old Spaniard even had the helicopter reverse course and returned to the car instead of going to the hospital. But even that didn’t help him and he had to withdraw from the competition.
But while Sainz made a driving error during the carambola, Loprais crossed the critical section in an absolutely exemplary way. He rode up the gently sloping dune, just like many of his predecessors.
Behind the dune and still camouflaged
That is why Prague, having jumped to the top of the dune, went down the left side. Unfortunately, exactly where the Italian fan was. His position at the time of the accident was literally fatal.
As the ruts show, Loprais was not the first to cross the dune in this way. The viewer has placed himself in an extremely dangerous place. He couldn’t see beyond the top of the hill and to top it off he had a light jacket that blended into the sand. “Unfortunately, he found a place under the dune and we didn’t see him,” Loprais explained on social media.
The Czech driver thus found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. But how is it possible that he “run over someone and didn’t even stop”? There is a simple, if perhaps surprising, answer to this: Loprais was unaware of any collisions with the viewer. He only found out about her in the evening in the bivouac.
A crucial fact must be added here: the Italian fan did not die of the injuries sustained by the Praga truck, but of a heart attack a few hours later.
As can be seen on board, Loprais’ crew didn’t even notice the impact, as the truck didn’t hit the victim directly, but threw him sideways. There is so much noise in the cabin that it is impossible to hear anything other than the engine and passengers’ voices through headphones. Not even the screams of the audience.
The cabin of the Praga is a so-called forward cabin, in which the crew sits just behind the engine, which partially obscures the view, especially when climbing to the top of a hill. He then rolls his eyes and doesn’t see below until the truck is loaded onto the front axle.
In sand, the truck doesn’t react immediately
But even with a trambus (that is, a straight cab like the Tatra 815, for example), the accident could not have been avoided with a probability bordering on certainty. A ten-ton truck does not react as quickly on sand as, for example, on asphalt.
“I see it every day from the cab. People jump in front of me, they’re hiding behind the dunes, they stand on it and they don’t realize how many times I can’t even drive the car in the sand. When I turn the wheel, sometimes there it takes up to five meters for the car to spin,” explained Jaroslav Valtr, Tatra driver in Tatra Buggyra ZM Racing team colors.
Coincidentally, his son Jaroslav junior is the navigator of Loprais. According to Valtro Sr., the trucks were not expected to race at all in the following 10th stage. “I would cancel today’s stage for the trucks to give the guys a chance to decide whether or not to return to the race,” he said before the start of the stages which took the field to the dreaded Empy Quarter desert.
But the organizers of the Dakar Rally already announced today that Loprais had presented himself to the authorities for investigation, which made it impossible for him to continue in the rally.
The key is to educate the public
The incident in Saudi Arabia has features in common with the tragedy that occurred in November 2012 during the RallyShow Uherský Brod near the village of Lopeník in Slovakia. Then, during the opening special stage, the car flew off the track at a speed of about 150 kilometers per hour, killing four girls and injuring two other spectators. At the same time, the girls found themselves in a forbidden zone where they had nothing to do.
Since then, the safety of Czech motor racing has changed to such an extent that the FIA International Automobile Federation is even setting it as a model for organizers of world championship events. The organizers carefully mark prohibited places, have enough officials to supervise them, and send out unruly individuals.
Another important factor is public education. Today only a fraction of those who stop along the herzeta don’t know how to behave.
For long-distance races, it is logically impossible to “belt” the entire measured section of 300 to 500km. Therefore, it is important that the promoter of the competition, together with the local authorities, intensifies the awareness campaign directly at the venue of the rally. So that not only the natives, but also guests from all over the world know how to safely enjoy the world’s toughest car competition.
