French sidecar driver's death in TT crash ruled misadventure

Cesar Chanal and Olivier Lavorel were newcomers at the 2022 TT

No "definitive answer" has been found to explain a French sidecar team's fatal crash at the 2022 Isle of Man TT, an inquest has found.

Driver Cesar Chanal was killed instantly in the incident on Quarterbridge Road on 4 June.

Passenger Olivier Lavorel died a result of his injuries in October in France.

Recording a verdict of misadventure Coroner of Inquests Jayne Hughes said Mr Chanal's death was a "tragedy".

Mrs Hughes said despite evidence from witnesses and detailed investigations by police and race organisers, there was no "clear explanation" as to what caused the crash.

The court previously heard that the sidecar team had the necessary road racing experience, and conditions were good during the afternoon sidecar race.

'Unfortunate error'

No issues had been identified with a recently resurfaced road at a part of the TT course known as Ago's Leap on Quarterbridge Road where the pair crashed at high speed, Ms Hughes found.

Inspections of their sidecar before the race and after the crash had not revealed any defects, while witnesses had not noticed anything unusual about the team's approach, she added.

Mrs Hughes said while some had heard a bang or change in engine noise before the crash, which could suggest a fault, a subsequent investigation of heavily-damaged the machine had not found any defects.

"A momentary lapse of concentration, inexperience, an unexpected bump, a temporary mechanical failure, any of which occurring in a vehicle travelling at high speed could explain why the machine veered to the right," Mrs Hughes said.

"For whatever reason, the race went wrong."

In her findings, Ms Hughes said the mistaken identification of the two men due each possessing the other's dog tag at the time of the crash was an "unfortunate error".

But she said she was satisfied race organisers ACU Events had made "robust" changes to identification and safety rules as a result.

A police investigation had been unable to establish whether rumours the tags had been swapped was true, and there was no evidence to suggest they had deliberately swapped dog tags, she added.

Addressing the court, Cesar Chanal's mother said the pair were responsible people who would not have exchanged their tags.

Mrs Hughes agreed that only the riders involved in the incident knew what had actually happened.