I've also put in quite a few hours trackside, usually doing communications alongside the flaggies. At our events nobody gets that close to the track and usually it is only the credentialed photographers who are allowed on the other side of the fence. We won't even let them stand on a tirewall in case a car hits it and knocks them off it.
Having said that, this is obviously at a Rally where it is difficult to police the entire stage. It also looks like it may have been a club rally or sub-national event, so they may not have had enough marshalls to keep the spectators out of harms way. Still, it looks like a dangerously stupid place to stand. Our laws (Australia) make it fairly clear that it is up to the organizers to make sure people stay out of harms way. If he was in Australia and he had been hit and nothing had been done to try and prevent him standing in a dangerous position then he would have reasonable cause to sue the organizers of the rally. That would pretty much shut down rallying in the state concerned and possibly the country as the chances of getting public liability insurance for future rallies would drop to zero. So one of the first priorities of rally organizers is to make sure that the planned stages allow easy control of spectators. Lots of bunting to mark the no-go areas and marshalls to yell at people who don't take notice. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
