A man lost control of his Dodge Viper during the Race The Half event today at Aéroport Roland-Désourdy near Bromont, Québec. MontrealRacing.com member 67Continental witnessed the incident and described the scene via this Facebook post:
No ambulance on site, no medical staff, no emergency assistance. Three of us ran into the field after this Viper went off the track at over a hundred eighty miles per hour. Passenger is conscious, but suffered a head injury.
I have never seen something as irresponsible at any motorsports event I have ever attended. It’s disgusting how this event has been organized. Hopefully this is the last Race The Half with this group of organizers. 30 mins for the ambulance to arrive after I called 911. I am a spectator!
I spoke to the organizers, here is their side of the story. They told me that they spoke to Emergency Services earlier, they were told the ambulance was close enough that they didn’t need to have one on site. And if there was a fire department nearby too. They were also told by the airport that their volunteers are trained in first aid. This turned out not to be true on all counts. The organizers accept their share of responsibility for what happened, but it looks like a lot of people dropped the ball here.
A post on the event’s Facebook page reads the following, seemingly disputing the fact that there were no first responders on site:
Bonjour tout le monde.
Merci beaucoup pour votre participation au Racethehalf. Merci aux pilotes aux partenaires et à toutes les personnes qui étaient venues à l’événement.
Merci aux bénévoles et aux propriétaires d’avions et hélicoptères.
C’est la première édition et beaucoup d’amélioration reste à faire et nous prenons les commentaires positifs ou négatifs.
Merci en particulier à notre équipe de premiers repondants et celle de l’aéroport qui ont fait ce qu’il fallait dans une situation d’urgence. Merci aux services ambulanciers et à la Police de Bromont pour leurs collaborations.
On se donne rendez-vous pour les prochaines activités.
A request for comment has been made to the event and we’ll keep you updated as to their response.
