Not off to a good start…:'(:banghead RIP…
Dakar - Boero dies on opening day of Dakar Rally
Sun, 01 Jan 19:41:00 2012Argentine rider Jorge Martinez Boero died after crashing on the opening stage of the Dakar Rally on New Year’s Day.
Boero, 38, suffered the accident on board his RR 450 Beta motorbike close to the sand dunes of the Atlantic seaside city of Necochea in Buenos Aires province.
He suffered serious injuries to his thorax and cardiac arrest.
Eyewitness Federico Sepulveda, 14, the son of a farmer, told AFP: "I saw him reach a hundred feet away from me. He was driving very, very fast. And suddenly I saw the bike destabilise.
"He veered to the left and struck an embankment on the edge of a field. He went over his bike [and] rolled several times before coming to rest.
“I do not understand what happened: the road was very flat, slightly sandy with some stones and straight.”
He was two kilometres from the finish of the 57km special stage held between Necochea and Energia, won by Chile’s Francisco Lopez.
“After falling, the rider suffered a heart attack,” said race organisers.
“He was treated just five minutes after the accident by race medical staff on board a helicopter, but it was not possible to revive him, and he died on the way to the hospital.”
He died at 10:19 local time (13:19 UK time). He is the 21st competitor to be killed since the race began in 1979 and 59th in total, including team members and spectators.
“However experienced the racers may be, they know the Dakar is high risk and that unfortunately this [kind of accident] can happen. Any error can cost you your life,” Ignacio Crotto, race coordinator for the province of Buenos Aires, told TN television news.
The race was moved from Africa to South America for security reasons four years ago and this year includes Peru - it will end on January 15 in Lima - as well as Argentina and Chile.
It was the second consecutive year Boero had contested the rally, considered one of the most gruelling of all sporting events.
He quit the 2011 race after a crash on stage six which saw him fall into a precipice and wait eight hours to be rescued.
His father, also Jorge Martinez Boero, was also a racing driver. He died in 2004.
Jonathan Symcox (Twitter: @jonathansymcox) / Eurosport
source: eurosport