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Motorsport

Watch a crash barrier save a rally car from disaster

Tomasz Kasperczyk’s crash at the Rally Islas Canaries is a real cliffhanger

Published: 08 May 2017

If you’ve ever cursed crash barriers for ruining your Instagram opportunities while on holiday, let us give you a very graphic illustration of the importance of these metal strips that shroud the road. It’s courtesy of helicopter footage from the latest round of the ERC at Rally Islas Canaries in the Canary Islands where rally driver Tomasz Kasperczyk and his co-driver had a real cliffhanger of a crash.

On the first stage of the day, Tomasz snaked his rally-spec Ford Fiesta around the cliff-top roads before entering a blind right-hander too hot. Understeering into oblivion, the car was set to plummet off the road, but the metal railing caught the R5 Fiesta, kicking it up in the air before clutching it as it dangled haphazardly off the edge of the cliff.

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Luckily, Tomasz and his co-driver scrambled out of the passenger door where they unravelled a handy piece of paper with ‘OK’ printed on it, waved it at the helicopter to let the crew know they were all good, before rushing up the road to prevent the next competitor doing the same and spearing off the side of the road.

Scary stuff, eh?

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