Three die in Jim Clark Rally crash 31 | 05 | 2014
SCOTTISH MOTORSPORT SUFFERED one of the blackest days in its history when three spectators were killed in a nightmare high-speed incident today on the Jim Clark Rally in the Borders.
A counter in the British Rally Championship, the Jim Clark is the only all-Tarmac rally to be held on closed-off public roads on mainland Britain.
Thousands of spectators annually flock to the three-day motorsport festival — which sees some of the fastest rally action in the country — lining the narrow Border lanes eager to get as close to the action as possible.
This afternoon's tragic accident happened on the second run through the stage at Swinton, the 16th of the 18 stages which comprise the 197-mile event.
The driver of a rally car, travelling at competitive speed, is understood to have lost control after crossing a bridge on a straight section of the stage. The car then collided with spectators.
Three spectators died at the scene. Another spectators was airlifted to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and is believed to be in a critical condition.
Both the driver and the co-driver of the car were uninjured physically.
It's also understood a crew member of one of the following cars was professionally medically trained, and they immediately administered treatment to the injured spectators.
The scene was instantly identified as a "major incident", and emergency services and personnel immediately entered the stage and added further support and treatment to the injured parties.
Within minutes, police has cordoned off the area and the decision was taken to immediately cancel the event. Tomorrrow's Jim Clark Reivers Rally, a counter in the ARR Craib Scottish Rally Championship, was also cancelled.
The decision to cancel both events was fully backed by the organisers of the Jim Clark Rally.
"This is a tragic event, and our thoughts are with the friends and families of the people tragically killed and injured in today's incident," the event organisers — the Border Ecosse car Club and the Berwick & District Motor Club — said.
The organisers are co-operating fully with Lothian & Borders Police.
The sickening incident followed another, less injurious crash which left one spectator nursing a suspected bone fracture.
On the stage at Eccles, a rally car suffered steering failure causing it to hit spectators after it entered a field. None of the injuries are believed to be life-threatening.
The incident will, understandably, reignite calls from certain sections of the public for rallying to be banned.
While that is unlikely to happen, it will strengthen calls for even greater safety measures to be taken in terms of marshalling spectators and removing them from potentially dangerous situations.
The reality though is that motorsport is a dangerous sport, both for competitors and spectators.
No one can question the trauma and intense emotions the distraught relatives of the dead and injured are now going through. Their pain, and loss, is incalculable.
A day's fun and jollity watching the sport their loved ones enjoyed has ended in the blackest, bleakest of days.
And yet, the reality is that, in attending any motorsport event spectators are — though they may laugh off the reality of the situation with enthusiastic bravado — putting their lives in a potentially deadly situation.
While the crews in the rally cars are surrounded by a phalanx of safety equipment, spectators — especially in rallying — have no more protection than a wooden fence, feeble hedge, and the clothes they're wearing.
I'm not going to get into a debate about the rights and wrongs of motorsport, and spectators' access: that's for other, more qualified and official individuals.
Without question though, yesterday's incident was hellish. There are few other words to describe what unfold on at the side of what is a normally peaceful, quiet Borders country lane more normally frequented by tractors and local folks going about their normal, routine daily business.
The incident has potential major repercussions for rallying, and motorsport in general not just in Scotland, but across the whole of the UK.
I understand that within a few hours of the incident happening, the most senior Lothian & Borders Police officer, the Gold Commander, dealing with the deaths was on the scene taking statements from rally officials.
And unusually, as the incident happened on a public road — albeit a closed-off public road — Edinburgh CID are also investigating the incident. Clearly, the 'Force' is not simply investigating the incident as a 'road traffic accident'.
Where those investigations will lead, no one at this moment knows.
What we do know is that today there are three families who will wake up tomorrow morning facing the reality that their loved ones, who walked out of the door yesterday to watch the sport they loved, never returned.
And that, in anyone's language, is tragic beyond words.
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Jim McGill