Nascimento heads inquiry committee
By Steve Ninvalle
Stabroek News
November 6, 2002
The Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club has appointed a committee to launch an inquiry into Sunday's accident at the South Dakota Circuit which took the lives of two children.
Kit Nascimento, who was appointed the club's Public Relation Consultant following the incident said the committee comprises Eddie Vieira, Joey King and Philip DeFreitas.
Six-year-old Dyna De-Souza and her three-year-old brother Ashton were killed when Englishman, David Brodie's Ford lost control during the third lap of the first Group Three race causing the worst accident on the track which was first used as a bomber dispersal circuit in World War Two before being converted to a racing track in the 1960s.
The car crashed through the chain-link fence at the southern section and slammed into the back of a mini bus in which the children were sitting.
"The GMR&SC has decided to invite qualified persons with knowledge of motor racing and who are independent of the organisation to form an accident inquiry committee," Nascimento said in a telephone interview yesterday.
The committee will commence work today Nascimento said and GMR&SC will await its report before making any further statement.
"We intend it to be a full and comprehensive inquiry. Until the club has the report it will be improper to comment on the actual accident and its cause," Nascimento said.
The former motor racer could not give a definite date for the handing in of the document but stressed that the club had requested that it be produced as soon as reasonably possibly.
The committee is expected to meet with Clerk of Course Mark DaSilva among others. "They are free to meet anyone they want," Nascimento added. According to Nascimento the local club is not affiliated to any international body although Guyana was a member of FIA in the late 1960s when he claimed motor racing was at the height of development.
"To the best of my knowledge no Caribbean country is affiliated to FIA," he stated.
Nascimento declined to comment when asked to respond to allegations in another section of the media by Brodie that basic safety precautions at the circuit could have prevented such accidents.
"I don't wish to comment on that report which was attributed to Mr. Brodie. I have no reliable report that Mr. Brodie has said that," Nascimento, himself, a former Clerk of Course said. He declared that contrary to some reports in the media the chin-link fencing is not intended to be a safety barrier but was there to keep spectators off the track.
"The records of motor racing will establish that South Dakota is one of the safest circuits in the world. This is the first time that we have had something like this happening. I would say that the track is much safer now than when we had FIA membership. However, there is no perfectly safe circuit," Nascimento added.
Meanwhile, Traffic Chief Fred Wilson has stated that the accident was still under investigation and advice was being sought on whether Brodie could be charged or not for the accident.
The traffic chief said that the English driver was not in police custody and was not being prevented from leaving Guyana. "We have not prevented him from leaving the country at this time," Wilson said.