Two lives lost on same race corner
Two experienced motorcycle riders died after crashing on the same number 13 corner of the annual Cliffhanger Hillclimb two years apart.
Wellington coroner Peter Ryan began hearing an inquest yesterday into the deaths of Malcolm Foster and Kevin Waugh.
Both died in the annual Cliffhanger hill climb in Te Wharau Rd, Gladstone, near Carterton. Foster, 59, of Tawa died on March 11, 2012 while Waugh, 59, of Newlands died on March 9, 2014.
The course is described as a 6.1-kilometre climb up through the Wairarapa hills. It rises 300 metres and has 27 corners.
Constable Glenn Marshall of the Wellington crash unit said Foster was probably travelling at 178kmh on his Ducati motorcycle when he failed to take the moderate corner on his last run of the two-day event.
Foster had already done several runs, getting faster each time.
‘‘He was riding at or near the limit of his ability,’’ Marshall said.
He said the aim was to get to the finish line in the shortest possible time. There were no speed restrictions, which he said must be part of the attraction for riders and increased the risk of injury or death.
Marshall said Foster knew the inherent dangers and signed a waiver at the start of the event.
Kevin Waugh was doing the first run of the day when he crashed. His motorcycle was found in a ditch by another rider
Waugh had failed to take the same corner as Foster. He could have been travelling between 188kmh and 218kmh.
Waugh could not negotiate the corner at the speed he was going and the line he had taken. The road was not suitable to the speed involved.
Marshall said he had been on call for one of the events recently and spent the time ‘‘at home chewing my nails’’.
The course was dangerous and there was no room for error.
A fence that both men hit had now been moved but Marshall said this had improved the corner only slightly.
Jim Tuckerman, past president of the international motorcycling federation FIM Oceania, said there were concerns over the way the event was run and he did not think it would have got permits from Motorcycling New Zealand the way it had been.
Concerns related to health and safety, safety briefings, scrutiny of the motorcycles, more control over who was on the course, and needing more marshalls.
Tuckerman saida full review of the event needed to be undertaken.
He agreed with the coroner that it was a concern that several riders had gone through one of the crash scenes before they knew there had been a crash.
However, he still thought the fatalities would have happened.
Ian James, course steward for the Cliffhanger race, said safety briefings now specifically included talking about corner 13 and warnings about it.
He said it was a case of very experienced riders making errors of judgment.
The coroner asked how the deaths could have been prevented.
‘‘They could have been prevented if they cancelled it [the event],’’ James said.
Competitor Peter Butler said he crashed on the same corner in 2013, skidding and ending up sliding on his back. He thought he had been going close to 180kmh.
The coroner is to consider his decision.