The 26th edition of the Rallye Košice, then a round of the 2000 FIA European Rally Championship held in Slovakia, was marred by a fatal accident which took the life of one spectator.
On the first day of the rally, Friday, 26 May 2000, the Toyota Corolla WRC #1 entered by the AMK Transpetrol Senica team and driven by the Slovakian crew Igor Suško-Emil Horniaček went out of control during the 16.4-kilometer sixth special stage, named "Izra 2" and rolled off into trees. During the rolls, the car hit and killed a 46-year-old man, whose name was not released. His body was found out only several minutes later.
Both the driver Suško and his co-driver Horniaček, who escaped serious injuries, did not notice they had ran over a spectator. Since their badly damaged vehicle was quite far from the track and they were out of danger, they left the wreckage and moved to report the accident to the marshals. They didn't come to help the spectator because they didn't know what happened. At the end of the 2000 season, Igor Suško retired from active racing.
After the tragedy, the special stage was immediately stopped. Racing resumed only hours later with the seventh special stage. The itinerary of the rally included a passage on the same road with the 13th special stage "Izra 3" which was canceled. Winners of the rally were Michal Gargulák-Jiří Malčík of Czech Republic, in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI.
R.I.P
