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2007 Gumball 3000 collision

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image	File:Porsche 997 Turbo 2007 Gumball 3000 (2).jpg
caption	Nicholas Morley in his TechArt Porsche 997 Turbo leaving London at the start of the Rally.
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cause	Road Traffic Collision
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reported deaths	2
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The Gumball 3000 Rally of 2007 ended early as the result of a traffic accident on May 2, 2007, in which two people were killed. The accident involved two vehicles, the first being a TechArt Porsche 997 Turbo that was participating in the Gumball 3000, and the second being a Volkswagen Golf. The latter was not involved in the Gumball 3000 event. Vladimir Čepunjoski, the driver of the Volkswagen, died at the scene. The passenger, Margit Čepunjoska died at the hospital two days later as a result of the injuries sustained in the crash. The driver of the Porsche, Nicholas Morley, and co-driver, Matthew McConville, were not seriously injured. Morley was sentenced for the death of the occupants of the other car.

Gumball 3000

Main article: Gumball 3000

The Gumball 3000 is an annual 3000 mile (4,800 km) international rally which takes place on public roads, which travels around the world. Although set up as a rally with no official timing, or prizes for reaching check points first, during the rally, some participants have been fined for speeding and other traffic offences by the police in countries they passed through, cars have been confiscated{{cite web |url-status=dead |url-status=dead it is sometimes referred to as a streetrace.{{cite web |url-status=live |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080908041054/http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/news/article1738200.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 8, 2008

The collision

On May 2, the participants in the 2007 Rally were driving through the Republic of Macedonia on a route from the Macedonian-Greek border near Bitola to the border with Albania, near the town of Struga. The traffic accident occurred on the motorway M4, at the entrance of the town of Struga, about 10 km from the Macedonian-Albanian border post.

The Porsche hit an oncoming Volkswagen Golf, which was making a left turn on to the main road from a side road and driving in the opposite direction of the Porsche. The Porsche hit the Golf head-on, and the crash pushed both vehicles off the road.{{cite web

Both the driver and the passenger in the Golf were heavily injured. The driver and the passenger of the Porsche seemed virtually unharmed, and they were immediately picked up by another Gumball 3000 participating vehicle, a BMW M6, and reported to a nearby police station where a breath test showed no alcohol was involved.{{cite web

Nicholas Morley was set free on bail of £17,000 and handed his passport to return home. He was requested to return to Macedonia if a court called him to attend in the future; however during that time the second fatality was confirmed by the hospital and so he was arrested again the next day in Skopje, while boarding a private jet.{{cite news |url-status=live |access-date = 2007-05-10 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071218104806/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2073487,00.html |archive-date = 2007-12-18 |url-status = live

The trial

In court the prosecution alleged a speed of 161 km/h (100 mph) while the defense opposed this by saying that the speed of the incoming vehicle was not taken into account and that his driving speed was only 70–75 km/h.{{cite web |archive-url = https://archive.today/20110928050633/http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=70219&NrIssue=363&NrSection=10 |archive-date = 2011-09-28 |url-status = dead

After the conviction verdict, Nicholas Morley released a statement{{cite web |url-status = live

Nick Morley spent 40 days in a Macedonian prison, was convicted, received a two-year suspended sentence, and returned to England.

Aftermath

The organisers of the Gumball 3000 initially continued the rally despite the incident, in a later official statement the organisers stated that the clear details of the incident and confirmation of a fatality did not occur until some hours after the briefing, at which point the decision to cancel the remainder of the rally was made.{{cite web |url-status=live

|url-status=live

References

(9 June 2007). "Porsche rally driver gets suspended sentence for fatal crash".
link. "Gumball Rally Racers Flagged Down by German Police". (1 May 2007)
(2007-05-09). "A Rally Turns Tragic in Macedonia". The New York Times.
"Accused painting slasher: I didn't do it". [[The Aspen Times]].
(April 27, 2018). "Aspen judge issues arrest warrant for suspect in 2017 art slashing". [[aspentimes.com]].

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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