Motorcycling: Controversy follows death at San Marino GP
Japanese teen Tomizawa killed in Moto2 crash
06 September, 13:24
(ANSA) - Rimini, September 6 - Controversy has followed the
failure to stop proceedings at Sunday's San Marino Grand Prix
after a fatal accident claimed the life of 19-year-old Japanese
rider Shoya Tomizawa in the Moto2 race.The teen was travelling at around 240 kmph when he fell and was hit by fellow riders Alex de Angelis and Scott Redding.
Organisers stressed that Tomizawa died in hospital, not at the track, at 14.20, after the Moto2 race he was taking part in finished and in the middle of the premium class MotoGP race won by Spain's Dani Pedrosa.
Italy's nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi, who like all the riders was told of the death after his race, said the action should have been stopped.
''When the ambulance leaves as slowly as it did, it's not a good sign,'' said Rossi, who came third at the Misano circuit, which is actually near Rimini in Italy and not in San Marino.
''It think it would have been right to show the red flag (to stop proceedings)''.
There were also polemics linked to the decision to take Tomizawa to hospital via ambulance, rather than helicopter, and there was even speculation in the Italian media that the time of death may have been delayed to avoid the need to abandon the grand prix.
Other commentators sympathised with the decision to continue racing, but suggested the organisers had been insensitive in other ways.
''Why were the podium ceremonies afterwards not dropped,'' read an editorial in Monday's La Gazzetta dello Sport.
''Why didn't the riders ask for this ritual to be cancelled? Why didn't the organisers think of this? ''No man is an island. It would have been a mark of respect for a soul that had flown elsewhere, a part of the group who'd left''.
photo: Shoya Tomizawa.
