List of fatal World Rally Championship accidents

List of fatal World Rally Championship accidents

The list of fatal World Rally Championship accidents consists of drivers and co-drivers who have died at FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) rallies. The list also includes fatal accidents in the International Championship for Manufacturers (IMC), the predecessor to the World Rally Championship, which was contested from 1970 to 1972. Well-known fatalities involving officials, spectators and team members are also mentioned.

The fatal accidents of the Group B era resulted in its demise. Only hours after Henri Toivonen's crash at the 1986 Tour de Corse, FISA president Jean-Marie Balestre announced that Group B cars were banned for the 1987 season. However, driver fatalities peaked in 1989, when five competitors died in the first three rallies of the season. Markko Märtin's co-driver Michael Park's death at the 2005 Wales Rally GB was the WRC's first fatality in over eleven years.

Drivers and co-drivers

IMC

Other fatalities

Team members

At the 1975 Safari Rally, a service car with four mechanics crashed into a parked truck near Mombasa. Carlino Dacista, Bian Fernandez and Willie Uis died instantly. The driver David Joshi sustained serious injuries. [cite web | title=Carlino Dacista | work=Motorsport Memorial | url=http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=4095 | accessdate=2008-09-18] At the 1978 Monte Carlo Rally, two mechanics, Bernard Balmer and Georges Reinier, died when their van collided with a truck near Gap, Hautes-Alpes. [cite web | title=Bernard Balmer | work=Motorsport Memorial | url=http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=6939 | accessdate=2008-09-18] On the second day of the 1987 Rallye Côte d'Ivoire, Toyota Team Europe's Cessna 340 fell down and exploded, killing all four inside; manager and former co-driver Henry Liddon, his assistant Nigel Harris, the pilot and the navigator. Team manager Ove Andersson withdrew Toyota from the event. Prior to the accident, Björn Waldegård and Fred Gallagher had been running second in their Toyota Supra Turbo. [cite web | title=Henry Liddon | work=Motorsport Memorial | url=http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=5847 | accessdate=2008-09-18] At the 1996 Safari Rally, competed in bad weather and rain, three British mechanics drowned while attempting to cross a river with their Land Rover. [cite web | title=1996 Safari Rally | work=Motorsport Memorial | url=http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&q=a&n=6052 | accessdate=2008-09-18]

Officials

At the end of the fourth stage of the 1981 1000 Lakes Rally, Audi Sport driver Franz Wittmann and his co-driver Kurt Nestinger did not notice the flying finish which marks the end of the stage. They continued at race speed with their Quattro and crashed into a group of persons standing in front of a van. Raul Falin, chairman of AKK, Finland's sporting authority for motorsport and the country's representative in the FIA, was quickly taken to a hospital but died from his injuries soon after. Boris Rung, co-founder and chairman of the European Rallycross Association and member of FIA's Off-Road Commission, survived the accident along with Greek FIA observer Costas Glossotis. [cite web | title=Raul Falin | work=Motorsport Memorial | url=http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=2387 | accessdate=2008-09-18]

pectators

At the 1978 Safari Rally, five by-passers and four spectators were killed in unrelated accidents, both involving non-competitive drivers crashing into competitors. [cite web | title=1978 Safari Rally | work=Motorsport Memorial | url=http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=5350 | accessdate=2008-09-18] On the first stage of the 1986 Rally Portugal, Joaquim Santos lost control of his Ford RS200 while trying to avoid spectators on the road, crashing into a "human wall" of spectators, killing three and injuring over thirty. [cite journal | journal=St. Petersburg Times | title=3 Portuguese spectators killed by skidding racer | pages=29 | date=6 March, 1986 | url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=X-EMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RGYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5652,5698183] All the factory teams – Audi, Austin Rover, Ford, Lancia, Peugeot and Volkswagen – withdrew from the event. [cite web | title=20º Rallye de Portugal Vinho do Porto | work=RallyBase | url=http://www.rallybase.nl/index.php?type=result&rallyid=217 | accessdate=2008-09-18]

Notes

References


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