VN news ticker: Tour de France organizer to sue sign-wielding spectator who caused crash
Here's the news making the headlines on Sunday, June 27.
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Tour de France organizer to sue spectator who caused crash
Tour de France organizer ASO has said it will sue a spectator that caused a mass pile-up on the opening stage of the race.
A spectator stood partially in the road holding a cardboard sign, which caused Jumbo-Visma rider Tony Martin to fall when he hit it as the peloton approached. Martin’s fall sparked a chain reaction that resulted in much of the peloton hitting the deck, while DSM rider Jasha Sutterlin was forced to abandon the race as a result of his injuries.
“We are suing this woman who behaved so badly,” Tour de France deputy director Pierre-Yves Thouault told AFP. “We are doing this so that the tiny minority of people who do this do not spoil the show for everyone.”
The local police force has issued a plea for anyone with information about the incident to come forward as it launches an investigation into it.
The police intend to charge the spectator with “unintentional short-term injury through a manifestly deliberate breach of a duty of safety or care”, lieutenant-colonel Joel Scherer of the French Gendarmerie told AFP.
