Spectator Dies in Auto Race Crash

One woman was killed and nine other spectators were injured Sunday when a racing car became airborne and plunged into a section of the crowd at the Amaroo Park Raceway, just outside Sydney, Australia.

Officials said Peter Hopwood’s Ralt Formula Mondial car touched wheels with another car at 112 m.p.h., veered onto a 10-foot embankment and was catapulted a distance of 30 feet over the heads of onlookers before landing upside down in a group of spectators.

An unidentified woman standing in the group, 20 feet from the track barricades, was dead on arrival at Blacktown Hospital, while six other spectators were treated and released. Three others were treated by doctors at the track for minor cuts and bruises. Hopwood escaped injury, but the second driver, Graham Watson, suffered a possible broken collarbone.

Hopwood averted a potential explosion by turning off the motor and fuel pump when he realized he was flying into the crowd, said senior police constable Ian King, who saw the crash.

“It was extremely lucky dozens of people weren’t killed,” King said. “He must have flown over a hundred people.”