TT officials attacked over fan's death

A blistering attack on race management was delivered by a coroner as verdicts of misadventure were recorded at the inquest on a Midland man and two others killed during the TT races on the Isle of Man.

TT spectator Dean Jacob, aged 33, of Tomkinson Drive, Kidderminster, died following an accident at a point known as the 26th Milestone on June 8. Competitor Marc Ramsbotham, aged 34, of Norfolk, and spectator Gregory John Kenzig, 52, of Australia, were also killed.

Mr Ramsbotham's powerful bike crashed into spectators while negotiating bends on the mountainous country roads.

Delivering his verdicts at the conclusion of the three-day inquest yesterday, Mr Michael Moyle launched the attack on race officials, marshals and the Department of Transport.

"Members of the public may be astonished not only at the number of failings but the gravity of them," he said.

Mr Moyle added there had been "considerable and wholesale failings in the system designed to ensure the safety of spectators was paramount".

He said he was far from impressed with a considerable number of witnesses who gave evidence to the inquest, accusing them of being "defensive", "passing the parcel of blame" and failing to accept facts that were "blindingly obvious".

He said if the prohibited area at the 26th Milestone had been properly marshalled and properly closed off, spectators would not have been in that area and "their lives would have been spared".

He said he had no powers to ban race officials and marshals but he said he hoped they would "do the decent and honourable thing" and not play any significant role in the future of racing.

Mr Moyle read a list of those people he was referring to – one name on the list was former clerk of the course Neil Hanson and chief marshal Roger Hurst .

Turning to the part played by the DoT in the tragedy he said: "If the DoT had deliberately set out to make themselves a laughing stock they could not have done a better job of it."

The inquest also heard from a marshal that a 2004 risk assessment document that marshals worked from had disappeared.