Quite suprised there isn't already a thread about this, guess not many people watch the WRC (?). There was an accident on stage 15 today, martins 307 hit a tree. The passenger side took most of the impact his co-driver, Michael Park was killed.

It's a sad day for the sport, Park was very good at what he did and will be missed.

A few links to stories on this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/world_rally/4257438.stm

http://www.wrc.com/page/BreakingNewsDetail/0,,10111~714910,00.html

http://www.wrc.com/page/BreakingNewsDetail/0,,10111~714967,00.html

http://www.wrc.com/page/BreakingNewsDetail/0,,10111~714968,00.html

http://www.wrc.com/page/BreakingNewsDetail/0,,10111~715017,00.html

http://www.wrc.com/page/BreakingNewsDetail/0,,10111~715029,00.html

I watched the highlights on ITV too... very unfortunate

A real shame, got to feel for his family.

yeah i agree he was great at what he done, the wrc highlights ere very moving at the end when they had the minutes silence.
imagine how marko martin feels he was uninjured in the accident and his co-driver was killed, i really feel for the man.

RIP

Very upsetting

he'll be sorely missed

I seen it on the news earlier. Very very sad. Richard Brittain, an Ulster Motorbike road racer was also killed today.

And 4 in the Great North Run. A very unfortunate day for sport.

The WRC programme was very emotional. You could tell during the interview with the Peugeot team boss that he had been crying a lot. All the WRC drivers and co-drivers at the end standing on the finish ramp for the minutes silence captured the atmosphere. There were looks of shock and disbelief on their faces.

RIP 'Beef'.

**** bad news all that saftey gear aswell

was surprised i hadnt heard bout this till the WRC highlights today.very sad.

*custard goes to look at north run news *

edit: link for anyone else
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/4257630.stm

rather surprised by the blase its a bit more than the USUAL 1 or 2!!

dave said:

**** bad news all that saftey gear aswell

Click to expand...

Michael Park and Richard Brittain will both be sorely missed having died while while taking part in the sports they both enjoyed so much.

With regards to safety gear Markko Martin was able to survive and he should not blame himself as if he had never rallied then he would not have been in the passenger seat of Richard Burns car travelling to the Wales rally back in 2003 when Richard blacked out (due to a tumor on his brain) at +70mph on the M4 where Markko was able to quickly lean over and grab the steering wheel guiding the car to a halt and saving both their lives plus any other innocent road users.

It reminds you that motorsport is dangerous, always has been, always will be and the latest technology is in no way a cast iron guarantee that you'll have a 100% chance of walking away from an accident.

My thoughts are with Michael's wife and children.

RIP Beef

OMG Cheers for letting us know Arc. I've not watched the telly today. I am shocked

I read about this this morning, but didn't feel like starting a thread myself
The cars themselves are very safe, and massively strong due to the roll cages. In the last 3 or so years I can think of 3 large accidents:
A head on between a Mitsubishi and a tree in New Zealand (or possibly Australia). The engine ended up 50 metres down the road, still on fire.
Martin and Park's Focus in a big roll after a crest in Argentina.
Solberg and Mills' Subaru hitting the hinkelsteins hard in Germany last year.
All of these were big crashes, and some led to hospital treatment, but none led to a death. However this accident happened, there must have been an element of bad luck for it to end this way.
Rallying is inherently dangerous, but those at the sharp end obviously are aware of this when they do it. At least he died doing something he enjoyed.

I think that ITV should have explained the situation better with Loeb taking a penalty on purpose to avoid winning the championship under those circumstances.

RIP Beef.

I found out about it yesterday as a couple of my friends were there. They are really upset. Such a shame

Read on one of the news sites that the crash itself was at an estimated 100 mph!
H

was with H when he saw it on the web, we watched the ralley, its really sad

RIP

Very sad news indeed.

Almost didn't watch the coverage yesterday 'cos I read it on t-text first.

They did show a clip of them in the car racing in one of the early stages.....just as part of the coverage (dunno if they missed cutting it). It was only a few seconds, but it was hard to see him calling his numbers, and knowing a few hours later he was gone.

I guess at least it was doing what he loved doing....
.......not killed by some little drug-thug ****head for a couple of quid.


RIP mate.