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The crowd at the off-road race was almost close enough to touch the trucks as they hurtled and bounced over the desert sand — close enough for one mistake to end eight lives.

Hundreds of thrill-seeking fans watched in horror Saturday night as one racer took a jump at high speed, hit his brakes on landing and rolled his truck sideways into spectators, sending bodies flying on a section of track that had no guardrails or anything else to keep the crowd back.

Eight people were killed and 12 were injured at the California 200, a race in the Mojave Desert about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

“You could touch it if you wanted to. It’s part of the excitement,” said 19-year-old Niky Carmikle, who stood sobbing over a makeshift memorial on the spot of the crash Sunday. Her boyfriend, 24-year-old Zachary Freeman of Fillmore, was killed in the crash. “There’s always that risk factor, but you just don’t expect that it will happen to you.”

CHP officer Joaquin Zubieta said Brett M. Sloppy, 28, of San Marcos, was behind the wheel of truck involved in the crash near the city of Lucerne Valley. Zubieta said alcohol was not a factor in the crash and there were no plans to arrest Sloppy.

Zubieta said state vehicle codes don’t apply because it was a sanctioned racing event held with the approval of the federal Bureau of Land Management, which owns the land used for the race.
Tens of thousands of people were spread out along the 50-mile track, but the site of the crash, a stretch known as the “rockpile,” is one of the most popular areas to gather, witnesses said.

Some witnesses said they got within 4 feet of the unmarked track, watching trucks fly through the air over a series of jumps.

The driver “hit the rock and just lost control and tumbled,” said Matt March, 24, of Wildomar, who was standing next to the jump. “Bodies went everywhere.”

March said he and several other fans lifted the truck, which came to rest with its oversized wheels pointing toward the sky, and found four people lying unconscious underneath.

John Payne, 20, of Anaheim, said he was among the first people to reach the truck. He said the victims included one person who was decapitated.
“It was complete chaos,” Payne said.

Carmikle had gone to the bathroom when the crash happened. When she came back, Freeman and his best friend, 24-year-old Dustin Malson of Ventura, were dead.

“Bodies all over the ground, people screaming, and all I wanted to do was find my boyfriend and my friends,” Carmikle said.

It took rescue vehicles and helicopters more than half an hour to reach the remote location, though spectators said off-duty police and firefighters in the crowd joined paramedics hired by the race organizer to help the injured and place blankets over the dead.

Six people died at the scene and two others died after being taken to a hospital, authorities said. Seven ambulances and 10 emergency aircraft responded, airlifting most of the 12 injured people from the area to hospitals.

Paramedics brought six people — five adults and a child — to Loma Linda University Medical Center, spokesman Herbert Atienza said Sunday. He had no information on their condition.

Officials said Sloppy, the driver, wasn’t hurt. It was not clear why he lost control of the truck, a white modified Ford Ranger with “Misery Motorsports” painted on the doors.

A Facebook page that appeared to belong to Sloppy and included a picture of his truck was updated Sunday with a note: “Soo incredibly lost and devistated my thoughts and prayers go out to all the familys and friends involved.. Thank you too all my friends for sticking with me even thru these tragic times I love you all.”

Nearly 40 friends responded with messages of support by Sunday afternoon.

Jeff Talbott, inland division chief for the California Highway Patrol, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that the driver was forced to run from the scene when the crowd grew unruly and some began throwing rocks at him. Several witnesses, however, said they didn’t see anyone throwing rocks at the driver.

Phone and e-mail messages left for the race organizer, South El Monte-based Mojave Desert Racing, were not immediately returned. The race is part of a series held in the Mojave Desert’s Soggy Dry Lake Bed.

A small cross and a circle of rocks were placed Sunday near the ruts in the ground left by the truck. Bags of victims’ clothing, some of it bloody, sat nearby.

There were no barriers at the site of the crash. Fans said these races rarely have any kind of safety guards.

“That’s desert racing for you,” Payne said. “You’re at your own risk out here. You are in the middle off the desert. People were way too close and they should have known. You can’t really hold anyone at fault. It’s just a horrible, horrible accident.”

The CHP does not normally investigate crashes at organized events, but took the lead on this probe because of its scope. It set up a command center at the starting line of the race. The federal Bureau of Land Management was assisting in the investigation.

Aside from Freeman and Malson, those killed included Brian Wolfin, 27, Anthony Sanchez, 23, and Aaron Farkas, 25, all of Escondido; Danica Frantzich, 20, of Las Vegas; and Andrew Therrin, 22, of Riverside. The name of the eighth victim had not been released Sunday afternoon.

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Continue reading »]]> A tour bus carrying Chinese tourists crashed Friday afternoon on a highway near Hoover Dam, killing seven passengers and injuring nine others, authorities said.

Six fatalities were confirmed on the scene, about 40 miles northwest of Kingman; a seventh person died at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, said Cmdr. Dean Nyhart with the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Nyhart said the bus was traveling north on U.S. 93 when it veered left and then right across the median. It rolled at least once before stopping.

He said he believes all but one of the victims killed at the scene had been ejected from the bus. About half of those killed were women, he said.

According to witnesses, the passengers ranged in age from about 6 to 60 years old.

Nyhart said five people suffered life-threatening injuries.

“We’re hopeful that those people can be stabilized and at least the death toll stop where it is,” he said.

The driver of the bus was among those in critical condition, he said.

Nyhart said the tourists on the bus were Chinese nationals who had flown from Shanghai to San Francisco. The tour group consisted of citizens from various parts of mainland China.

There were 16 people on the 30-passenger bus, which is operated by D.W. Tours out of San Gabriel, Calif.

The crash occurred as the group was returning to Las Vegas from a day trip to the Grand Canyon, according to a DPS statement.

Some people rushed to the scene from a nearby diner shortly after the crash.

“There was a lot of bodies on the ground. There was a lot of police officers, rangers, DPS, medical people, all over the place. It was just horrific,” said Ben, a maintenance worker at Rosie’s Den who would not give his last name.

He said the bus was turned on its side and crushed in the front.

Four people remained hospitalized at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, including the driver, a 61-year-old man in critical condition.

The others were: a 35-year-old woman in serious condition, a woman in critical condition whose age was unknown; an 8-year-old boy in serious condition; and a 48-year-old man in serious condition.

Ryan Kennedy, a spokesman for Kingman Regional Medical Center, said that one victim, an adult male in critical condition, was transported to Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas.

The remaining four – three women and one man – were all listed in serious condition.

DPS continues its investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting its own investigation.

Tour-bus accident claims 7, injures 9

Continue reading »]]> The death toll of a road accident in southern Egypt has risen to 57, the state MENA news agency reported on Sunday, citing a senior official.

Minya Governor Ahmed Diaaeddin said the bus carrying 70 passengers was traveling to Beni Sueif when the accident occurred.

On Sunday morning, the coach overturned some 200 km south of Cairo on the way from the southern city of Minya to Beni Sueif, said MENA.

The bus plunged into Al-Ibrahimia canal as the driver was trying to avoid a speedy truck coming from the opposition direction, Diaaeddin was quoted as saying.

Earlier reports said most of the victims drowned in the canal before rescuers can reach them.

More than 20 ambulances rushed to the spot to take part in rescue operations, said Diaaeddin, adding both drivers are being held pending investigations.

Earlier reports said at least 51 people were killed in the road accident, one of the deadliest tragedies in the country in recent years.

Traffic accidents are common in Egypt with an estimated annual death toll of some 6,000 people.

On Monday, a bus carrying Coptic students overturned about 30 km south of Cairo, killing at least 13 people and injuring 30 others.

On Dec. 1, at least 14 people were killed and 11 others injured when a lorry collided with two microbuses near the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, some 220 km northwest of Cairo.

The Egyptian traffic authorities implemented a new traffic code with tougher punishments for lawbreakers as of Aug. 1 in a bid to reduce road accidents.

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