A race organiser in Belgium has been convicted of serious offences and sentenced arising from a fatal crash during a race he ran 2019.
A series of mistakes in the planning of the event, and on the day, conspired to bring about the circumstances of the crash, during which several riders were struck by a driver in a van.
Stefan Loos of the Acrog-Pauwels Sauzen-Balen team died from the injuries he sustained in the crash. He had been a team mate of Remco Evenepoel the previous year.
On being convicted, a litany of errors made by the race organiser were set out in court when the case was finalised in Belgium yesterday.
Race organiser Marc Duquesnoy was prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter and involuntary injuries. The crash took place at Mourcourt during the Alfred Gadenne Grand-Prix in March, 2019.
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Yesterday at the Tournai police court Duquesnoy was sentenced to three months, with the full term suspended. The prosecutor in the case had requested a 12-month sentence, with six months suspended, which would have resulted in prison time.
In court Duquesnoy was criticised for the insufficient number of marshal motorcyclists on the day. The court also said a race director was designated too, meaning he did not recognise the course. The signage along the route was also described as imprecise and too sparse.
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Duquesnoy, through his lawyers, were critical of the fact he was the only person prosecuted, saying responsibility for the multiple failures should have been shared.
The defence noted the police had granted permission for the race to go ahead despite the shortage of marshals, adding Duquesnoy was not responsible for the deployment of marshals.
The accused man further claimed while he had made a mistake in drawing up the race route, he was not responsible for directing riders on the day.
"I have organised more than 500 races," he said. "What happened remains on my heart. But I cannot be responsible and guilty for everything. Until I die, I will think about this tragedy."
During the race a large number of riders, about 30 in total, were sent the wrong way. They went straight through a junction when they should have turned right in the first hour of racing, at a location where the arrows directing the riders were different to the route book.
And because they were off the course without realising it, they raced through another intersection just as the driver of a van was coming the other way.
Loos and two other riders crashed with the van and sadly the teenager later died due to head injuries.
