2007 Gumball 3000 accident

Nick Morley in his Techart Porsche 911 Turbo prior to the crash.

The Gumball 3000 Rally of 2007 ended early as the result a traffic accident on May 2, 2007, in which two people were killed. The accident involved the TechArt Porsche 911 Turbo of Nick Morley and Matthew McConville and the Volkswagen Golf of Vladislav and Margarita Cepunjovski. The accident resulted in the immediate death of Mr. Cepunjovski, while his wife died two days later as a result of the injuries from the crash.

Gumball 3000

Main article: Gumball 3000

The Gumball 3000 is an annual 3000 mile (5000 km) international rally which takes place on public roads, which travels around the world. Although set up as a rally with no official timing, or prizes for reaching check points first, during the rally, some participants have been fined for speeding and other traffic offences by the police in countries they passed through, cars have been confiscated and the 2007 rally was canceled after a car participating in the rally was involved in a fatal collision with a non-participating vehicle. Although the organizers are careful to emphasize that it is a rally and not a race, it is sometimes referred to as a streetrace.

The accident

On May 2, the participants in the 2007 Rally were driving through the Republic of Macedonia on a route from the Macedonian-Greek border near Bitola to the border with Albania, near the town of Struga. The traffic accident occurred on the motorway M4, at the entrance of the town of Struga, about 10 kilometers (6 mi) from the Macedonian-Albanian border post. The coordinates of the exact location of the crash are 41.174220°N 20.657240°E / 41.174220; 20.657240 (Gumball 3000 accident in 2007).

The Porsche 911 Turbo hit an oncoming Volkswagen Golf, which was making a left turn on to the main road from a side road and driving in the opposite direction of the Porsche. The Porsche hit the Golf head-on, and the crash pushed both vehicles off the road.

A video of the immediate aftermath was subsequently posted to the YouTube website.

Both the driver and the passenger in the Golf were heavily injured. The driver and the passenger of the Porsche seemed virtually unharmed, and they were immediately picked up by another Gumball 3000 participating vehicle, a BMW M6, and it is alleged they then fled to the border, where they were arrested by the Macedonian border police. The casualties reported in the accident were the 67-year old driver of the Golf, Vladimir Čepunjoski, who died on his way to the hospital, and his wife Margarita Čepunjoski, who died in hospital from injuries sustained in the crash on May 4.

Nicholas Morley was set free on bail of £17,000 and ordered to appear in court for a trial; however, he tried to flee the country once again the next day in Skopje, while trying to board a private jet. After this second arrest, he was detained in prison until the trial.

The trial

In court the prosecution alleged a speed of 161 km/h (100 mph) while the defense opposed this by saying that the speed of the incoming vehicle was not taken into account and that Morley's driving speed was only 70-75 km/h...

The subsequent court hearing found Morley guilty and convicted of "endangering traffic, leading to death" and was released from custody after receiving only a two-years suspended sentence for those two deaths...

After the verdict Morley's family released a statement detailing its own expert's findings, which contradict those of the prosecution's expert. The statement also claims that the defence were denied the opportunity to present their expert's findings, which could contravene article 6 of the European convention on human rights, the right to a fair trial. Despite this, an appeal was not made in due term.

Aftermath

The organisers of the Gumball 3000 initially continued the rally despite the incident, in a later official statement the organisers stated that the clear details of the incident and confirmation of a fatality didn't occur until some hours after the briefing, at which point the decision to cancel the remainder of the rally was made. Adidas, a sponsor to the 2007 Gumball 3000, immediately backed out as a rally sponsor and took all Gumball 3000 related merchandise off the market internationally.

Cooper's statement on the Web site:

Dear fans and followers of Gumball,

It's been a dramatic and emotional week, full of stress, drama and one of disaster in Gumballs nine-year successful history. At this time of mourning my sincere condolence and deepest sympathy go out to the Chepuljoski family that suffered great loss last week.

I thank the many of you that have emailed and text such kind words that have shone light in these dark times, your comments have been uplifting to say the least. I nor anybody involved in the rally could ever have dreamt of a worse scenario or outcome to this years event.

With 6 million road miles covered by 2000 participating cars and crew in the rally over the past 9 years and no previous fatalities, its fair to say our safety record hasn't been at all bad, albeit one or two lucky escapes. In saying that, with such a safety record perhaps as many of the past few days arguments have stated, a fatal accident was inevitably going to happen.

Last Wednesday evening 2nd May, aware of the accident but not its severity, I, along with the rest of the Gumballers were hosted for a gala dinner by the Prime Minister of Albania in Tirana's Presidential Palace. Despite all kinds of rumours flying around the dinner table, the Macedonian authorities informed me that the elderly couple involved were in hospital but were 'okay'.

It was not until all cars were on route to Bratislava the following day that the call came through from the authorities with an official police report that Mr Vladimir Chepuljoski had died of a heart attack during the night caused by the trauma of the accident. I am aware that the timings of our press releases that followed the incident has upset many of you, as many of you felt to have been kept in the dark over the facts, and I even heard the word 'cover-up' being mentioned on one of the forums. I am sorry that it may have felt like this, but I can assure you that I, and the rest of our team were acting as efficiently as we could whilst also following the protocol of finding out the correct information before issuing any incorrect facts.

Our focus this week has been on helping the Chepuljoski family in their moment of need, and we are currently setting up a donation fund to help them through this time of suffering.

We've all put our heart and souls and endless hours into Gumball since its inception in 1999, with a common goal to unite people of all nations and to bring fun and entertainment around the world through the language of the motorcar. We are simply devastated at what has happened, and your continued support of everything positive about the Gumball is enormously appreciated.

Once again thank you for all your kind words, we will honor them all by posting them on our website in the coming weeks.

Maximillion Cooper