23 Jun 2019

A motor rider sustained a serious injury during the Toyota Kalahari Desert 1000km Race on Saturday.

Botswana Motor Sport public relations officer, Joseph Khengere, said in an interview that the 40-year-old local rider sustained a serious injury and was taken to Bokamoso Private Hospital where he is recuperating. Khengere said a team was dispatched to look for the rookie rider and it took about three hours to rescue him.

He said the rider was among the 53 riders out of which 48 were locals who left the Sam Sono stadium at 7 a.m to start the first heat of the race. Other riders were from South Africa and Portugal.

He said since it was the first time for the race to be held in Selebi Phikwe, the riders were not familiar with the route, as a result, the team took longer to locate the injured rider because of the problem of accessibility.

Going forward, he suggested that more evacuation spaces be included when planning for the routes next year to ensure safety.

“We have learned an important lesson from this and have to put all the necessary resources out there,” he said.

For his part, Botswana Police Services director of traffic, Katlholo Mosimanegape, said even though he heard about the accident, it was not reported to the police. He said usually a sport of this nature had rescue teams.

In addition, he said the police did not record any serious accident on Friday and Saturday even though the race attracted a high number of people.

He said an influx of people was observed on June 20 while on June 22 the numbers were overwhelming particularly at spectator points along Selebi Phikwe/Sefhophe road.

Mosimanegape said the police worked round the clock to manage traffic both in town and at spectator points. He said the music festival which was held on Saturday was also packed posing a challenge for the police.

However, he said he was happy that everything went well. In addition, he commended the efforts made by Botswana Railways and Botswana Tourism Organisation to avail a special passenger train from Lobatse to Selebi Phikwe.

The aim was to help decongest and minimize road accidents along the  Gaborone/Francistown road (A1). ENDS