Personal Injury Law

8 dead and 10 injured after driver loses control in race

Local authorities reported that eight people were killed and ten people received personal injuries after a driver racing in a motor vehicle race lost control of his off-roader vehicle. The vehicle went airborne in the motor vehicle accident and landed on top of spectators. The agency investigating the deadly car accident stated that bystanders did not have much of an opportunity to escape the out-of-control vehicle. Online videos of the race from former years show that spectators stand dangerously close to the speeding off-road vehicles. Additionally, no concrete or other barriers exist to separate spectators from the cars. The race was held in a desolate area in California on federal desert land just east of the mountains ? off-roaders were racing the loop reaching speeds of over 60 miles per hour.

The driver has not been arrested; alcohol was not a factor in the crash. A different off-roader commented that he did not think the racer did anything stupid, he just hit it too hard. One eyewitness said that she could tell that several people were trapped under the vehicle. She personally saw one woman with a major head wound bleeding and another individual crushed beneath the car. The investigators on scene were searching the vehicle for mechanical defects and to attempt recreating the collision scene.

A video of the off-roader race accident scene where 8 people were killed and ten people were injured is available at Chicago Tribune.

Full post as published by Illinois Injury Lawyer Blog on August 16, 2010 (boomark / email).