Thrills are a real lure to some people, and that’s one reason why fans of off-road racing love that sport, according to The Los Angeles Times Monday.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-california-200-20100816,0,2728389,full.story
“Nothing beats the danger, dust and noise of watching 3,500-pound trucks roaring past — close enough almost to touch — and then rocketing into the air over treacherous jumps,” The Times wrote.
Tragically, the danger turned deadly in the Mohave Desert in California Saturday, when one of the racing trucks went out of control during a jump and flew into a crowd of spectators. Eight people were killed and five others were seriously hurt. Six people died at the actual scene, with two others succumbing to their injuries at local hospitals.
The racer who was driving the modified Ford Ranger that became a deadly rocket was Brett Sloppy, 28, of San Marcos, Calif. It was his truck that went airborne when it hit a spot called “the rock pile,” rolling over fans who were too close to the race course to have time to get out of the way.
In their defense, there was no fence or barrier to hold them away from the race course.
AOL News reported that Sloppy wasn’t hurt, but that he had to flee from the fatal accident scene when the crowd began throwing rocks at him.
The crash took place during the California 200, which is run in the Soggy Dry Lake Bed some 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles. It’s an annual race that draws thousands of fans who view the 50-mile dirt track from the sidelines.
As AOL News pointed out, this recent crash in the “Mad Max”-like setting of the Mohave is just one of several accidents where spectators were killed at races this year. In the spring, for example, a woman was hit and killed by a flying tire when a car crashed at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Ariz.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it’s time to craft safety measures that will protect racing fans.