Rally Car Wreck In Spain Kills Several, Including Two Pregnant Women And Injures 16, Including Children [Video]

A rally car wreck in Spain caused the death of seven spectators and injured several more. Two of the victims of the crash were pregnant women; while five of the 16 spectators who survived the crash, but were badly injured, were children.

Police responding to the gruesome crash site confirmed that six people were killed on the spot, but the death toll has risen to seven, reported Yahoo. The latest fatality of the rally car wreck was an 11-year-old girl. The gender and identity of all those killed in the wreck haven’t been officially confirmed, but reports indicate that two pregnant women were among those who died.

The race car is reported to have lost control amidst the rally and plowed through a group of spectators gathered to watch the sport. Before the unsuspecting onlookers could realize what had gone wrong and get to safety, the rally car had run them over. The rally was being held at Carral, in the region of Galicia in northwest Spain. Apart from those who died instantly, 16 others were badly injured and are being treated at a nearby hospital. Among the injured were five children, one of which succumbed to her injuries today. Six others are still in critical condition, reported CNN.

Race officials and the police have launched an investigation to find out how the car crashed into the crowd, but the video indicates that the people were quite close to the race track, and there were no signs of safety barriers either. The wreck happened on Saturday after the rally car veered off the road into a crowd of spectators near the finish line, reported Axega.

Though the rally car killed seven and injured several more, the driver and his navigator have survived the crash owing to the stringent safety regulations. Surprisingly, the car did not sustain much damage and is quite likely to be examined thoroughly to check if it was human error or mechanical fault that caused the wreck. The race was immediately brought to a halt after the crash and was subsequently cancelled without a winner.

The wreck happened during the Rally de A Coruña, which is a part of the Galician Championship in Spain. Finely tuned cars, made to sustain the rigors of racing through some of the toughest terrains, draw thousands of spectators and bystanders. Though safety regulations and barricading are deployed to separate the watchers from the rally cars, a malfunction or driver error can hurl a car into a crowd of spectators, claiming lives.

[Image Credit | Jeff Gross / Getty Images]