Dear Editor,
Picture a sunny Sunday afternoon. You are driving down one of the many tracks here in the beautiful Algarve with your children in tow. You are on your way to view a house. If any of you are like me, you will have been on Google to find out the exact location beforehand to make sure you’re on time for the viewing. I like to know where I am going..
Suddenly the happiness is shattered by a rapidly approaching rally car that comes around the corner so fast that his rear right wheel is off the ground. You have nowhere to go and stop in the hope that he will just glide on by and miss you. In our case, this wasn’t to be and the rally car hit us head on.
When our car had stopped moving from the sheer force of the impact and the dust had settled, I was able to see a person emerge from the rally car and take off his helmet. I remember thinking it was the co-pilot because of the door he got out of. I then noticed that his car was in the ditch on our side of the road so he was unable to open his door. The rally driver had managed to climb from the driver’s seat to the passenger seat and out of the car.
I could just about move my head and my body felt like it had been snapped in two but the pain in my body paled to insignificance compared to the pain in my heart. My beautiful daughter was sat in the passenger seat and my full of life and energy son was in the rear seat behind me. I am sure if I could have moved my head to look at them both I wouldn’t have wanted to.
What I felt in those few moments will stay with me for life and it’s something that I re-live on a regular basis. It is something that no parent should have to go through.
I felt physically sick until I heard my daughter say “mum” and then my son spoke.
Although I couldn’t see them, it was a huge relief that they were able to talk and, in my daughter’s case, swear at someone then apologise to me for doing it. Bless her …
From that moment on, it seemed like total chaos. If my daughter could have reached her feet she would have taken her shoe off and launched it at the crowd that had gathered, most of whom were family and friends of the rally driver.
The GNR and INEM arrived and we were taken out of our car and off to Barlavento hospital.
We were very lucky that day to have escaped without having broken bones or life-threatening injuries, although at the time it didn’t feel that way.
The GNR’s crash report shows that the rally driver’s skid marks were over 21 metres long before the impact and the width of the track we were on at the time of impact was six metres.
The rally driver was able to enter the Casinos do Algarve Rally with his car all fixed just 20 days after the crash. We were still struggling to get about 20 days after the crash, and the thought of even getting in a car, let alone driving it, was horrendous.
It has been over two years since the crash and the rally driver is yet to be prosecuted for what he did to us.
To make matters a hundred times worse, I drive down a single track lane to our house (most of the time with my heart in my mouth) because it seems that this track that is also now a public footpath is the training ground for yet another rally driver.
I have watched him fly past our house and every other house on the track at break neck speeds, without a care for anyone that might be driving or walking along it.
There will be an almighty crash one day and guess what? The rally driver will get out of his protective bubble and live to race another day. He will leave behind him the carnage and destruction he has caused.
I would just like to say that I love rallying. I used to follow the RAC rally in the UK many years ago and will get up to watch the F1 at whatever ungodly hour it’s on. I love going to the Autódromo and would live there if I could.
Any type of racing is dangerous and the drivers take their lives into their own hands; it’s a risk they take every time they race.
These rally drivers who are racing along the tracks here are putting other people’s lives at risk and then getting away with it! They are a disgrace to a wonderful sport and do not deserve to be able to rally professionally.
The names of the rally drivers are known to me but have not been mentioned for fear of reprisals. I would probably end up in court for slander and the case would probably be dealt with a lot quicker than our ongoing one from 2010.
I would love to hear readers’ comments on this and will supply my email to the Algarve Resident for anyone wishing to contact me on this subject.
Name and address withheld
