Mercedes Guadic's Fatal Crash @ Rally Argentina 2007 (Aftermath)
- 4 months ago
Around 11h30 of Saturday, 05 May 2007 the Subaru of the duo Gonzalo Alenaz Rodríguez and Laureano Grigera drove through the fourteenth displacement stage of the Rally de Argentina, named Cosquín after a town located nearby, in the province of Córdoba, Argentina. Being that a displacement stage, it was to be completed following the same standard traffic norms applied to road-going vehicles. Alenaz and Grigera’s entry was made under the name of the first; their Subaru Impreza STI competed under the Group N, Class 4 regulations and received the number 86.
Gonzalo Alenaz Rodríguez and Laureano Grigera, as well as their competitors, were on the way to the fourteenth special stage of the 2007 edition of the Rally Argentina - named Cosquín - Tanti II which was part of the second leg of the event. That is an 11.27-kilometer piece of gravel road, mostly flat stage and with a downhill at its end near Tanti. The same segment - run in the same direction from Cosquín to Tanti – had been used the day before as the sixth special stage of the rally, in its first leg. Also, it was part of the Rally Argentina in 2005 – albeit then it was used in the opposite direction.
Merely 200 meters before the start of the Cosquín – Tanti II special stage the Alenaz and Grigera’s Subaru went out of control and hit a group of spectators standing over a 80-centimeter wall. Three of them were injured: the Provincial boxing champion Antonio Ochoa, 28-year-old and Gisella Cogni, 25, both from Bialet Massé, Córdoba, and Mercedes Guadic, 49, from Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires. All three received first aid at the place of the accident and were transported to Hospital Domingos Fúnes in Villa Caeiro, Santa María de Punilla, Cosquín. Sadly, Mrs. Guadic did not resist her injuries and died on the ambulance before reaching the hospital.
Initial reports stated that Guadic, Ochoa and Cogni were hit by the Impreza when they cross the road but in an interview to a local radio, co-driver Laureano Grigera explained that Gonzalo Alenaz Rodríguez lost control of the Subaru when a ball and socket suspension joint broke. Authorities informed that Alenaz Rodríguez, aged 32 and Grigera, 27, suffered a nervous breakdown after the accident and had to be attended to.
María de las Mercedes Guadic de Martínez was born in La Plata and lived in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, with her husband Luis Alberto Martínez and three children. She had traveled to Córdoba with her husband, who was slightly injured in the accident, purposely to watch the Rally de Argentina.
According to different accounts, her surname was reported as Guadix, instead of Guadic; this has not yet been clarified. The Sub-Governor of the Province of Córdoba Juan Schiaretti, announced that an airplane would be made available to transport her body back to Mar del Plata.
R.I.P
Gonzalo Alenaz Rodríguez and Laureano Grigera, as well as their competitors, were on the way to the fourteenth special stage of the 2007 edition of the Rally Argentina - named Cosquín - Tanti II which was part of the second leg of the event. That is an 11.27-kilometer piece of gravel road, mostly flat stage and with a downhill at its end near Tanti. The same segment - run in the same direction from Cosquín to Tanti – had been used the day before as the sixth special stage of the rally, in its first leg. Also, it was part of the Rally Argentina in 2005 – albeit then it was used in the opposite direction.
Merely 200 meters before the start of the Cosquín – Tanti II special stage the Alenaz and Grigera’s Subaru went out of control and hit a group of spectators standing over a 80-centimeter wall. Three of them were injured: the Provincial boxing champion Antonio Ochoa, 28-year-old and Gisella Cogni, 25, both from Bialet Massé, Córdoba, and Mercedes Guadic, 49, from Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires. All three received first aid at the place of the accident and were transported to Hospital Domingos Fúnes in Villa Caeiro, Santa María de Punilla, Cosquín. Sadly, Mrs. Guadic did not resist her injuries and died on the ambulance before reaching the hospital.
Initial reports stated that Guadic, Ochoa and Cogni were hit by the Impreza when they cross the road but in an interview to a local radio, co-driver Laureano Grigera explained that Gonzalo Alenaz Rodríguez lost control of the Subaru when a ball and socket suspension joint broke. Authorities informed that Alenaz Rodríguez, aged 32 and Grigera, 27, suffered a nervous breakdown after the accident and had to be attended to.
María de las Mercedes Guadic de Martínez was born in La Plata and lived in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, with her husband Luis Alberto Martínez and three children. She had traveled to Córdoba with her husband, who was slightly injured in the accident, purposely to watch the Rally de Argentina.
According to different accounts, her surname was reported as Guadix, instead of Guadic; this has not yet been clarified. The Sub-Governor of the Province of Córdoba Juan Schiaretti, announced that an airplane would be made available to transport her body back to Mar del Plata.
R.I.P