Dakar rally claims its first casualty
The Dakar Rally is famous for its unfortunate history of taking the lives of those who dare to take part in the endurance race, and this year's running is no exception. The body of 49-year-old French motorcyclist Pascal Terry has been found after the rider went missing for three days. Race officials had gone searching for Terry after they received word that his Yamaha motorcycle had run out of fuel. Pascal's body was found in the shade near his motorcycle and he reportedly had abundant food and water. An autopsy revealed that the rider died of a respiratory and cardiac arrest caused by a lung edema. Here's hoping that the rest of the field finishes the rally with no further casualties. Thanks for the tip, Ashutosh. [Source: The Canberra Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John P. 9:40AM (1/09/2009)
Ahh man, that sucks. At least he went doing something he no doubt loved.
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Dan 9:47AM (1/09/2009)
No doubt. Would rather go down living your life than watching others do what you dream. RIP
BigMcLargeHuge 9:56AM (1/09/2009)
Every once in a while, you get reminded how stressful racing can be on a driver.
You can apparently get fluid buildup in your lungs just by a rapid pulse, high blood pressure, and high tension level for a long period of time. All things associated with an endurance race.
i.e. racing can kill a healthy person without a crash if the stress gets to them.
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Lars H 10:01AM (1/09/2009)
Err, don't those fellas wear GPS tracking devices, like one of these (http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/09/xact-trax-personal-tracking-device-requires-no-monthly-subscri/)?
Beyond safety considerations .. how cool would it be to watch your favorite racer's progress on google maps in real time?
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John P. 10:13AM (1/09/2009)
I've seen that used in bicycle racing and it is cool, when it works. It's still a bit dodgy but has a promising future no doubt.
Mobius_1 10:10AM (1/09/2009)
R.I.P.
Heck of a way to go.
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dukeisduke 10:19AM (1/09/2009)
I just read about this on the Dakar site last night. Very sad.
It's too bad that the only post here about the Dakar is one covering a rider's death. Actually I was hoping that there would be a daily post per stage here. The coverage on Versus is okay, but I still miss the days when it was on SPEED, with narration by Toby Moody ("It's going to be mega!"), who was actually on location.
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Phil L. 1:17PM (1/09/2009)
US coverage of the Dakar is poor. Versus is trying, but they've got a ways to go.
For more expanded coverage, see what Eurosport has to offer.
Do you miss Toby Moody? He's covering the Dakar for Fox in Australia.
The torrents are out there...
JD 10:30AM (1/09/2009)
I was watching the race last night, no mention of this.
Like someone asked: Don't these guys have GPS??? 3-days is way too long to go missing in an orgnized race be it in the middle of nowhere.
My heart goes out to his family.
By the way, an American who wasn't even racing 4 weeks ago, joined the race and is currently in first place.
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adam 10:54AM (1/09/2009)
The GPS systems were, IIRC, on the bikes themselves. Even so, it could have somehow malfunctionned or been dammaged/shut off somehow.
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RamiroBA 11:24AM (1/09/2009)
The GPS was damaged. There was an organization problem... the motorcyclist activated the alarm, and the organization receved it in France, but the people in Argentina never receved any message. Then someone cometted a mistake advising that he saw him in the camp (Then they realized he confused with someone else). So it took a lot of time to find him... It was a chain of problems. Very sad. He was found under a tree,surrounded by food and water... apparently he choked while he was eating. There were some organization problems yesterday, with 80 racers lost in the rain and hail. Some parts of the race weresuspended to find them (They found them all). It´s being a very difficult race, with some racers really tired,Sainz with some problems and Qatar prince disqualified (He was doinggreat!)
Sorry about my poor english...I´m from Argentina. I saw all the vehicles in Buenos Aires...it was great to see them in them in the streets, with the normal traffic, stoping in the red lights an loading diesel in a regular gas station. There were 500.000 people there!!!
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pmiddle5 12:51PM (1/09/2009)
Your English is better then most on this site. Thank you for the real news and me oh my that is quite infuriating...
So it goes
mike F. 12:23PM (1/09/2009)
Terrible News!
It's a shame it took a death for Autoblog to cover any news on the event. I emailed them on Monday or so to see why they weren't covering one of the greatest tests of human and machine endurance...
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BenS 12:57PM (1/09/2009)
+1
Jake B 12:33PM (1/09/2009)
What a Choad. The least he could've done is realize that he was dieing, and perform a stunt death last minute. Nothin like dieing from jumping a gigantic sand dune than dieing sitting under a cactus.
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BenS 12:56PM (1/09/2009)
Compassion fail
Kind of hard to recall how you want to go out with a lack of oxygen (respiratory and cardiac problems might have had something to do with it, or something) don'ch ya think?