“Driver error” caused the deaths of four experienced motorsport competitors at Targa Tasmania events, a coroner has found.
Shane Navin, 68, drowned when his Mazda rolled into a creek during the 2021 event.
The same year, 68-year-old Leigh Mundy and Dennis Neagle, 59, were killed instantly when their Porsche left the road and hit trees at 188.5km/h.
A year later, Anthony Seymour, 59, died when the safety cage of his Lotus Exige failed after crashing through a wire barrier.
“I am satisfied that driver error was the cause of the three fatal accidents,” Coroner Simon Cooper said in findings released on Thursday.
“The common factor for the fatalities on the Cygnet and Mount Roland stages was excessive speed.”
While Cooper found Navin’s vehicle was “not travelling at excessive speed in the circumstances”, he attributed the crash to driver error due to loss of control and reaction time.
Seymour had been travelling at 101km/h when he lost control on wet roads.
Cooper also found “the maximum average speed of 132km/h was exceeded on two stages for the 2021 event” and noted there were “no speed limiting devices used on or immediately prior to the three incident locations”.
He questioned whether racing cars should be allowed to compete on public roads at all.
The Porsche and Lotus were “designed to be driven on a race circuit” with safety features “not present on ordinary Tasmanian roads”.
“There [is] much to be said for the proposition that racing cars are for racing tracks,” he found.
Cooper added that “serious consideration” needed to be given to whether such vehicles should be allowed to race at “high speed on ordinary roads”.
But he also stressed that “individual responsibility” couldn’t be ignored. “They all knew the risks and voluntarily accepted them,” he said.
Cooper said he didn’t consider it necessary to repeat previous internal recommendations, describing them as “comprehensive”.
Instead, he urged that all measures be fully implemented before the event returns this November after a three-year break.
“I conclude by expressing my sincere and respectful condolences to the families of Mr Navin, Mr Mundy, Mr Neagle and Mr Seymour on their losses,” he said.
