Symons dies after crash
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ByEurosport
Published 09/01/2007 at 14:40 GMT
Tragedy has struck the Dakar Rally after South African motorcyclist Elmer Symons died following an accident. The 29-year-old KTM rider crashed 140km into stage four, and was pronounced dead at the scene after medical assistance was flown in.
Rally Raid Dakar 2007 Elmer Symons
Image credit: From Official Website
Doctors were on the scene within eight minutes, but they were powerless to save the rider.
Symons was 18th in the overall standings after three stages, and suffered the accident at 10:16 CET (09:16 GMT)
Elmer's brother Kingsley was in Africa to help him on his first Daka, and event organisers extended their sympathy to his family.
Race director Etienne Lavigne said: "We don't exactly know the causes of either the accident or the rider's death.
"The accident happened on a section marked as 'dangerous', level two [out of three]. It is an area where there are waves of sand. It is a racing accident in a very difficult off-road competition."
In 2006 the KTM motorcyclist Andy Caldecott was killed after an accident, and two spectators died in separate incidents.
A year before, two riders died in consecutive days. Jose Manuel Perez and Fabrizio Meoni. A total of 47 competitors have lost their lives since the race began in 1979.
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