Inquest into death of MGP competitor reconvened

Louis O'Regan sustained fatal injuries in incident at Kate's Cottage

*A warning that this story contains information which readers may find upsetting.

Water seeping through the road, communication between marshals and race control, and possible mechanical failure have all been discussed at the inquest into the death of a Manx Grand Prix motorcycle racer.

Louis O’Regan’s inquest was reconvened at Douglas Courthouse today (9 March) by Deputy Coroner of Inquests Rebecca Cubbon.

The 43-year-old from Didcot in England was killed on 18 August 2024 during the opening day of the event.

He sustained fatal injuries in an incident near Kate’s Cottage.

The cause of the crash is still yet to be established, but several witnesses gave evidence to the court.

Drone footage was also played to the court showing the section of the Mountain Course between Keppel Gate and Kate’s Cottage, heading down towards the Creg-Ny-Baa.

It’s worth noting that inquests are a fact-finding process to determine the when, where, and how (medical cause and surrounding circumstances) of a death, and will not assign blame or act as criminal proceedings.

JAMIE WILLIAMS

The fatal incident followed an earlier red flag the same day, after local rider Jamie Williams crashed in the same area.

Mr Williams came off his bike on the opening lap of the first qualifying session for Classic Superbike and MGP Senior competitors.

He told the inquest today that riders had been told about wet patches in areas such as Glen Helen before setting off, but that no issues had been reported in the area of Keppel Gate to Kate’s Cottage.

He described losing control of his bike on the back end as he crossed over the white lines from the right side of the road to the left, saying he had to fight the machine to get around the corner and not go straight into the banking.

Mr Williams sustained several injuries and was transferred by air ambulance to Noble’s Hospital for treatment.

He maintained consciousness throughout the accident.

He told today’s inquest the white centre line was ‘100 percent’ where he lost control, adding: “O’Regan lost control in the exact same spot.”

He said he’d heard ‘other riders also suffered some instability in that location’, and that the ‘road condition wasn’t great’.

Mr Williams rebuffed suggestions of rider error, saying it was the first event of the day, and so experienced riders hadn’t had chance to flag up any issues.

“I didn’t do anything wrong that day.” – Jamie Williams

He told the court if riders had been warned of water seepage in the area before racing, they ‘would have approached with more precaution’, saying he believed that if rain flags were on display, he and O’Regan wouldn’t have crashed.

MARSHALS

Two marshals who were at the scene of both incidents that day told the inquest water was seeping through the road surface through the white lines.

One said she has been marshalling at Kate’s Cottage since 2022 and that on the day of the incident many riders were ‘wobbling there’.

Asked what she believed caused the wobbling, she said: “Water.”

She asserted that water seepage in that location ‘is frequently discussed amongst marshals’ and that she was surprised racing restarted following Williams’ accident.

Another marshal added: “We all talked about the fact it was a particularly damp area.”

He told the court they had ‘reported it to the sector marshal on numerous occasions’.

He added that he would have expected the red and white ‘lack of adhesion’ flag to have been put out at Keppel Gate after Williams’ crash to warn other racers.

ORGANISERS

However, organisers of the event raised doubts that the 'very small and very narrow' wet patch was the leading factor in the incident.

Deputy Clerk of the Course, John Barton, an experienced racer, said he didn’t link the presence of water on the road to either of the collisions.

He told the court he has reviewed the radio transmissions made between marshals in the sector to race control from two minutes before the first road closure to the second red flag incident of the day and found no mention of damp patches.

The court was played some of the recordings in which the sector was cleared for lockdown – also known as roads being closed for racing.

No mention of water on the road was included.

Mr Barton said that following Mr Williams’ crash, a ‘lack of adhesion’ warning was displayed on matrix signs and announced in the paddock ahead of further racing, as requested by the travelling marshal.

However, he could not confirm if marshals around the course were displaying the corresponding physical flags.

When told that one witness statement described the damp patch as ‘like slipping on ice’, Mr Barton said if he’d have experienced that himself he would have called for the rain flag to be displayed, but he didn’t.

He said no competitor had raised issues with race control either on inspection laps or when returning to parc fermé post qualifying.

He also raised concerns if marshals had spotted issues but not reported them through the official channels.

Mr Barton went onto suggest Mr O’Regan had been experiencing mechanical issues with his motorcycle.

Whilst Mr Williams had been travelling through the corner in fourth gear, Mr O’Regan was in second gear.

Mr Barton said: “No rider of that calibre would be going round that corner at 120mph in second gear.”

MACHINERY

The suggestion that Mr O’Regan’s motorcycle was having mechanical issues was also raised by two spectators watching the qualifying sessions from the hedges.

One was positioned above Kate’s Cottage, closer to Keppel Gate, with a clear view of riders from the Bungalow until they took the corner down towards the Creg-Ny-Baa, whilst the other was below Kate’s Cottage looking up towards the corner.

The witness above the corner told the court Mr O’Regan ‘seemed to be slowing down’ to slower than race pace on the approach to the corner, suggesting his bike’s engine was misfiring.

He said the engine ‘sounded flat’ and described Mr O’Regan as staying to the left of the carriageway rather than pulling out to the right to take the corner ‘as though he knew he had a problem and was slowing down’.

He then described seeing white smoke coming from the machine ‘right across the track’ as Mr O’Regan took the corner.

The witness below the corner witnessed the incident through his camera lens.

He said Mr O’Regan appeared to be ‘struggling to control his motorcycle’ and agreed with the assertion he wasn’t ‘in usual race position’.

He put his camera down and took cover as the rider approached as he anticipated a crash was about to happen.

He said: “Coming into the corner he lost control.”

ROADWORKS

The section of road where the incident occurred was closed for a ‘significant period’ in the day after O’Regan’s crash.

Then poor weather conditions saw racing called off for several days, in a particularly impacted contest.

On 19 August marshals raised concerns with the damp patches and on 22 August, banding work was carried out by the Department of Infrastructure.

But back in April 2024 the Mountain Road had been closed for routine maintenance works ahead of the road racing season.

It emerged during Mr Barton’s evidence in court today that at that time, the DOI and police had a meeting in which police raised concerns about the section from Brandywell to Kate’s Cottage, particularly at Keppel Gate.

This was regarding the Douglas bound carriageway in wet conditions.

However, as road racing does not occur in such conditions, these concerns were not seen to impact events such as the TT and MGP.

There were no incidents in this section during TT 2024, which precedes MGP.

The inquest was adjourned overnight and will resume tomorrow morning (9 March).

It’s anticipated that it will be concluded tomorrow afternoon.