The Flying Finish

The accident happened at the FF (Flying Finish), which is the end of the stage where competitors cross the timing beam at full clip. When a rally driver is almost at the end of the stage, when his co-driver calls the FF coming up, he is at the very limit of his wheelsmanship and the car’s stability/ability. His eyes are peeled for that yellow board in the distance that signals the FF, accelerator pinned to the floor. He only backs off after crossing the flag.

Reports say Gaurav Gill was doing 140-150kmph and I do not doubt it. At that speed, on tarmac, the braking distance is 150 metres, assuming you have near-instantaneous reaction times. On dirt/gravel it is easily twice that. When something comes at you at that speed there is no avoidance manoeuvre you can make, nowhere you can swerve, you can only slam the brakes and pray.

In their defence, the villagers would never have imagined a car could travel so fast on their dirt tracks. They probably thought they had the time to cross. But that doesn’t make Gaurav Gill guilty. If anybody could have avoided the accident it is somebody with the skill of Gaurav Gill. In a rally you’re at a heightened state of alertness, your reactions are the quickest they will ever be. That Gaurav couldn’t avoid the bike means he had nowhere to go.

News reports are now saying the FIR mentions the villagers were parked off the track and Gaurav went into them. Impossible to believe that. The gory pictures published, without any empathy, by some websites show the three deceased on the rally track with their mangled motorcycle. Gaurav Gill’s car, with the smashed front end, is also on the track. Which clearly points to the incident having happened on the track, not off the track.

Another accident on the same stage

The two cars behind Gill are going to be questioned because a complaint alleges the cars behind were also involved in the accident. Again, that’s just not true. The truth is there was another accident on that very same stage, competitor #5, whose incident was due to a missed pace note. It was a big accident where the co-driver got injured and had to be rushed to hospital. The co-driver is recuperating well now. Again, to reiterate, that accident had nothing to do with the one at the finish.

Could this have been handled better?

The organisers packed up and fled the scene. They should not have done that. Period. But I cannot blame them either. This is India and they would, in all likelihood, have had the living daylights thrashed out of them. Can you grudge them running for their lives?

What isn’t right is that the organisers didn’t turn up even a day later. Gaurav Gill had only his team and his sponsors to rely on as they bounced from hotel to hotel to keep a low profile while the cops looked for somebody, anybody, to pin the blame on to. The FMSCI should have also held a press meet to put forward the correct facts, especially to the main stream media. It’s time the FMSCI had a press officer and a media commission. There’s a reason why it is called Public Relations.