Life can’t be the same again: Gill on Jodhpur tragedy
NEW DELHI: In a matter of few weeks, India’s top rally driver Gaurav Gill got to experience the best and worst moments of his professional career, leaving the otherwise strong-willed person completely shaken.
Driving through treacherous terrains at quick speed makes you fearless and your vision razor sharp. But one can’t really prepare for something which happened with Gill last month. Going flat out in the Jodhpur round of Indian National Rally Championship (INRC), the 37-year-old, driving at more than 160kmph, hit the apex coming out of a blind corner. Before he could react, his car collided with a motorcycle, leading to the death of three including a minor who was on that trespassing vehicle.
“This kind of incident teaches you everything about life. Life can’t be the same again. It has to change. It is obviously not easy to live with this when it is not your mistake,” an emotional Gill opened up a little more than a month after the “massive tragedy”.
Life can change quickly, they say. It changed for the worse for Gill, who became the first motorsport athlete to be awarded an Arjuna on August 29, less than a month before the incident.
After the government honour, Gill took part in a round of World Rally Championship-2 in Turkey. It was all going as per “plan” for the Delhi-based driver until tragedy struck. “It all happened in less than half a second. I didn’t even see the colour of their clothes. It was that quick,” recalled the three-time APRC champion, who was booked for his involvement in the accident.
Though a Barmer court granted him bail earlier this week, his life has turned upside down. He feared becoming the target of a local mob following the deaths. “It was just me and my lawyer in Jodhpur. I was pretty much on my own but luckily I had my team members who helped. The promoter too was around. I saw some reports that I suffered serious injuries but I was fine in a day or two. It was a blind corner and at that speed, when the road is 12-15 feet wide, what can you do apart from applying brakes and slowing down as much as you can.”
Gill hadn’t even come to terms with what happened before reports of him absconding surfaced. “I am very sad. People keep saying that I have absconded. I am sitting at home. The cops have not even called me once, they don’t require me to be there in person. They called the organisers and my lawyer,” he said.
The incident left Gill’s family in shock, so much so that his wife and mother don’t want him to drive in an Indian rally again. “My wife and mother was like ‘why do you want to drive in India, you can just do world championships’. But this is what my life is, this is what I do. I don’t want to stop for anything,” said Gill, who will be returning to action with the Rally Australia next month. Being in the car will never be the same for Gill but that is the only way he can overcome the “mental scars”, adding that he will see a sports psychologist before the rally in Australia. “I am a mentally strong person but sometimes it’s good to walk over the situation.”
The accident has also exposed the compromised safety standards at Indian rallies. To ensure such a terrible tragedy is not repeated, Gill has suggested to governing body FMSCI that a test event should be held before a proper rally is staged, like WRC.
“It was just lack of organisational experience that led to this. It was all under their control and the organisers could have managed the situation in a much better way,” added Gill.