Google translation. The side lining is by me as it's probably the targeted caption.
But wasn't the Youtube video originally shown in French television?
14.58 I send, it proceeds for a hundred meters and
meets some spectators. He stops the 205 T16 and
asks if Toivonen has already passed by: he
receives a negative answer. Only then does he
understand what is happening: he retraces his
steps and together with the navigator Faulille tries to
approach the burning car with a fire
extinguisher, but everything proves useless.
Meanwhile Biasion arrives and he too can't help
but notice the tragedy that has befallen his poor colleagues.
In the meantime, with only five cars entering
the test, the timed section was interrupted.
15h14': the first SAMU emergency vehicles
arrive under the orders of Colonel Battesti, but all
that remains of the Delta S4 is the chassis and
the two pilots, a few, miserable remains.
From initial information we learn that Toivonen
and Cresto's Delta S4, before going off the road,
appears to have hit a small parapet and knocked
down a tree before flying down and catching fire.
The explosion is certainly due to the enormous
heat emanating from the Turbo KKK mounted on
the S4 and the power of the compressor; then the petrol
from the tank (located very close to the turbo) did the rest.
Ninni Russo was also a helpless witness to the
tragedy, following the race from above with a
helicopter (but without the possibility of
providing assistance because aerial assistance
was prohibited by the International Federation,
African competitions excluded), with sports
management duties. «I don't see the pilots, I
don't see the pilots!>> Ninni shouts over the
radio <<Tell Biasion to slow down, because there's
fire! We are attempting a landing." But when the
helicopter descends, the ground around it is
already burned and the carcass of the Lancia
can barely be seen. Later Balestre and some
officials from the French Federation and the
race management also arrive on site. It is
decided to cancel this damned eighteenth special,
not to run the last two stages of the stage
and to have the remaining competitors to reach
the end of the stage in Calvi, from
where the third and final stage of the Tour de
Corse will start the following day.
As a sign of mourning, Lancia will withdraw the
two cars remaining in the race, the number 1 of
Alen-Kiwimaki and the number 6 of Biasion-Siviero.
|| Among the many testimonies heard and collected immediately
|| after the accident, two seem more interesting than
|| many others. The first, from a Court
|| policeman who was following the special from
|| the top of Col d'Ominanda («I saw the car tackle
|| the stretch before that curve in a normal way, but then
|| I no longer saw it appear at the end of the curve
|| itself. I then thought of a mechanical failure, but
|| immediately afterwards I clearly heard an
|| explosion and saw black smoke rising between the
|| explosion and when I saw the column of
|| smoke. of. About a minute later Saby's car
|| arrived>») and another belonging to a French
|| television assistant, who also filmed the moment
|| of the accident, albeit from far away (<<It seemed
|| to me that Toivonen made strange gestures with
|| his arm, as if he wanted to chase away an
|| insect from inside the passenger
|| compartment").
16.30: the poor remains of the two Lancia
pilots are taken to the Corte hospital and
mercifully recomposed. A little later, Dr.
Benigno Bartoletti proceeds to identify his two
unfortunate runners.
In the evening, Henri Toivonen's wife and her
family and Sergio Cresto's girlfriend arrived in
Ajaccio.
------------------------
A series of terrible coincidences "link" together the disasters
that deprived the world of rallying of Attilio
Bettega, Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto.
First of all, the date of the accident (2 May), the
place (Corsica), the race number (for both the
car is marked with four). But that's not all: in
this tragic game of fate, other analogies were
intertwined in the sporting lives of the
missing champions.
Attilio and Henri teamed with Cresto; both the
Venetian and the Finn had reached the podium in
the Costa Smeralda before the tragic Tour de
Corse, one placing second, the other in flames.
Their destinies were once again linked by the
serious accident in which they had
encountered on the roads of Sardinia: in '84,
Bettega had escaped unharmed from a bad off-road
accident during the second special test, while
Perissinot had fractured his legs; a year later
Toivonen fractured a vertebra on the Isuledda.
And beyond their sporting curriculum so
intimately intertwined with disconcerting coincidences,
there is also a family detail: they both left two
children, Alessandro and Angela Bettega,
orphans; Markku and Arla, Toivonen.
