Track marshal dies after sustaining injuries at Canadian Grand Prix

 

Esteban Gutierrez gets out of his car after crashing. He was unhurt in the accident. (Getty)

 

A marshal died from injuries sustained in a mishap while tending to Esteban Gutierrez's crashed car in the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

The 38-year-old worker, who has not been identified, dropped his radio and was backed over by a crane while officials prepared to remove Gutierrez's car from the track. Gutierrez crashed in turn 2 in the late stages of the race.

"The worker was helping to recover a car which had stopped during the race. The recovery vehicle had lifted the car to return it to the pits and while doing this the worker dropped his radio and attempted to pick it up. As he did this, he stumbled and was hit and run over by the recovery vehicle," the FIA, the governing body of F1, said in a statement.
The track worker, a 10 year veteran, was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at 6:02 PM local time before he was to be operated on.
From the Montreal Gazette:

The man was rushed by ambulance to the medical centre at the raceway, where he was stabilized by a team of doctors and nurses. He was given oxygen.
The man was then transported by helicopter to Sacré-Coeur, a designated trauma centre, where a team of specialists was already in place waiting for him.
“A giant wheel went over his body, so there are fractures,” Bouchard explained shortly after the accident.

Mobile cranes are a common site at F1 races and are used by course marshals and officials to extract cars from gravel traps and barriers with limited disruption to the race. Fernando Alonso, who finished second to Sebastian Vettel in Sunday's race, tweeted his condolences.