Eduardo Gatica Barrientos Fatal Crash @ Natales 2016 (Aftermath)
- 6 months ago
Eduardo Gatica Barrientos, 22, a prominent Chilean sportsman and a member of the Selección Chilena de Karate (Chilean Karate National Selection), lost his life on Sunday, 18 December 2016, as a result of a violent accident that occurred during Las Tres Horas de Puerto Natales, while acting as co-driver in the Renault Clio driven by his father Jorge Gatica.
The tragedy broke out during the second hour of race. While travelling at high speed along a paved section of the course, Gatica's car collided with the vehicle #55 of Andrés Melgarejo-Julio Mansilla and both cars left the road. After hitting a barrier the Renault Clio flipped end over end several times, coming to rest some 150 meters from the asphalt, badly damaged.
Although the event's medical crews were on hand almost immediately, Eduardo Gatica Barrientos who was thrown out of the car, succumbed to his injuries shortly later at Puerto Natales Hospital, where he had been taken in serious condition, along with the other three competitors, who received non life-threatening injuries as a result of the crash.
The accident forced the organizers to stop immediately the race. It was the 35th edition of the event, organized by the CAPS (Club de Automovilismo Patagónico Sur) and held on the classic Circuito Dorotea, a 16-kilometer asphalt and gravel mixed course in Puerto Natales, the capital of the Province of Ultima Esperanza, in the Región de Magallanes, Chile.
R.I.P
The tragedy broke out during the second hour of race. While travelling at high speed along a paved section of the course, Gatica's car collided with the vehicle #55 of Andrés Melgarejo-Julio Mansilla and both cars left the road. After hitting a barrier the Renault Clio flipped end over end several times, coming to rest some 150 meters from the asphalt, badly damaged.
Although the event's medical crews were on hand almost immediately, Eduardo Gatica Barrientos who was thrown out of the car, succumbed to his injuries shortly later at Puerto Natales Hospital, where he had been taken in serious condition, along with the other three competitors, who received non life-threatening injuries as a result of the crash.
The accident forced the organizers to stop immediately the race. It was the 35th edition of the event, organized by the CAPS (Club de Automovilismo Patagónico Sur) and held on the classic Circuito Dorotea, a 16-kilometer asphalt and gravel mixed course in Puerto Natales, the capital of the Province of Ultima Esperanza, in the Región de Magallanes, Chile.
R.I.P