Few details have surfaced at this time, but the rally has suffered the loss of one of it’s teams’ members. The following was posted on the official Mongol Rally website on Sunday:
“We are deeply saddened to announce the death of a participant taking part in the Mongol Rally 2010. Our deepest sympathies and thoughts are with the family and friends of the deceased at this difficult time.
The team were involved in a serious traffic accident on Friday 6th August. Two team members were injured and are now in hospital in a stable condition. Sadly one of the members of the team died as a result of his injuries.
We will not release any information about the identity of the team or further details of the accident unless we are instructed to do so by the families involved as they wish to remain anonymous at this time. Reports confirm that nobody else has been hurt in this incident.
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office have been excellent and are in contact with all the families of those involved and are providing ongoing assistance. No other teams were involved in this incident.
If you have any questions at this stage please contact The Adventurists via the ‘Get in touch’ page of the website. If you are concerned for a family member please be assured that if you have not been already informed by the F.C.O. your relatives were not involved in this incident. We will update this report on the 9th of August if appropriate.”
The Adventurists openly warn of the inherent danger associated with their events, and when you think about how many adventures they plan each year, the sheer number of people taking part in them, distances traveled and everything else you may face on the journey, I suppose you could say it was inevitable that something unfortunate like this would happen. The thing is, it’s only after it actually does that you REALLY sit back and take notice.
Our thoughts are with the surviving team and family members of the rallier who suffered this very unfortunate incident. More details will be updated in this post if/when they are released.
