Dakar Death Rally

The Dakar Rally death toll continues with the 2010 race.  A woman watching the start of the Rally was killed when a vehicle taking part in the race veered off the course and hit her during the opening stage. Here’s a column I wrote for News24 in 2005, about the deaths caused by the race then. It’s still valid, as the deaths continue.

Imagine the following news report:

“London – Five people have died during this year’s Wimbledon Championships. Two ballboys were crushed beneath a Coke vending machine on Monday, and number 10 seed Wayne Ferreira died last Sunday of complications caused by choking on court. The latest death is a five-year-old girl who was struck by a ball accidentally smashed into her face by Tim Henman.

“Organisers said that the deaths were unfortunate. During the last 20 years, there have been more than 30 deaths at Wimbledon, but there are no plans to cancel the prestigious event.

“Carlos Moya said that there was no thought in his mind of not taking part. ‘It’s sad to hear that a competitor has died, but that’s the nature of this tournament. It pits man against the tennis ball, and it’s this unpredictability that makes it the exciting game that it is. It’s something that man has always done – pit himself against the unknown. It’s what makes us human.’”

Ridiculous, isn’t it? But it’s the sort of drivel one has to read daily about the Barcelona-Dakar Rally, formerly known as the Paris-Dakar. This year [2005], the Dakar has claimed five lives. Two drivers, named as Fabrizio Meoni and José Manuel Perez, and three civilians, who nobody has bothered naming. One of them was a five-year-old girl, crushed under a lorry.

Mitsubishi driver Stephane Peterhansel, who won the car event this year [2005], is quoted as saying, “It’s always very sad to hear a competitor has died but this race is a trial and no one forces us to face this trial.”

Yes, Mr Peterhansel, that’s all very well. But who is forcing the civilians en route to face the trial? You are. And when they die, they don’t have the touching solace of becoming part of the pantheon of Dakar “heroes”, which I believe is the French word for “idiots”.

Nor do they have the satisfaction of having a bunch of lunatic petrolheads paying fitting tribute to them. According to news reports, “In the early morning before the final stage of the 2005 Dakar rally, the motorbike riders knelt on the beach and faced the Atlantic Ocean, holding a simple banner with the words ‘Ciao Fabrizio.”

Innocent bystanders

Frightfully touching stuff, but I’m unmoved, I’m afraid. The business of glorifying death by stupidity belongs to the Darwin Awards. My rule for extreme sports is, if you threaten only yourself, fine. But when you threaten innocent bystanders, you’ve moved from sport to assault.

Since the rally was first held in 1979, more than 40 people (some reports put the figure at 30) have died, including the race’s organiser, Thierry Sabine. In 1996 a three-year-old girl was killed by motorcyclist Marcel Pilet in Guinea, as he roared over a sand dune. Again, history records her killer’s name, but not hers.

But in all the news reports one reads, participants don’t seem to grasp the fact of civilian deaths, and none of them seem to be able to contemplate stopping the event.

Four-times Dakar winner Ari Vatanen is quoted as saying, “You might as well stop any human activity. Man has to always discover new things, has to risk things, has to jump into the unknown.”

Man, sure. But little girls? Why should they have to face the unknown of a thrill-seeking moron on a motorcycle landing on top of them?

If you want to sum up the ludicrous arrogance of the Dakar, it’s this – some of them race 11 ton trucks! Why on earth do you want to race massive trucks through Africa? What does it possibly prove? Well, if nothing else, it proves that Africans are just part of the landscape to these new colonials. And that excitement, sponsorships and sport stories mean more than a few innocent lives.

1. 

   Lee says:

   January 20, 2011 at 1:31 am

   Just as no one is forced to race the Dakar no one is forced to watch it either. Lots of race teams held fund raiser all year collecting shoes for the children in the villages and this race brought a lot of funding to Africa. This is one of the last great tests for man an machine. They now have imposed speed limits through populated areas that are monitored by the GPS you carry. I love how the ones that preach equality and freedom of right choose not to follow them. Go hugh a tree.