Some twenty kilometers after the start of the eighth stage Djado-Arlit-Agadez, in territory of Niger, of the 1988 Rallye Paris-Alger-Dakar, on Saturday, 09 January of that year, the works DAF truck bearing the race number #601, driven by Theo van de Rijt from the Netherlands, suddenly somersaulted while passing in a bumpy stretch at about 180 km/h (112 mi/h) in a plat and fast desert road.
The vehicle was completely destroyed, Dutch co-driver Kees van Loevezijn, standing in the right side of the cabin was thrown out of the truck and was killed upon impact. The experienced driver Theo van de Rijt, 37-year-old at his seventh start in the Dakar Rally, and the third occupant, Chris Ross, 24-year-old from Scotland, were seriously injured. Both of them were taken to Agadez hospital and later they were airlifted to a clinic in the Netherlands where they eventually recovered.
Cornelius Antonius Maria "Kees" van Loevezijn, 31-year-old DAF engineer, lived at Eindhoven and was at his third start in the Dakar Rally. The DAF FAV3600 95X2 driven by van de Rijt-Ross-van Loevezijn was the same machine in which veteran Jan De Rooy had won the truck class in the previous edition of the Dakar Rally. After the fatal accident, team DAF immediately withdrew its entries from the rally and some days later the squad decided to stop definitively their racing activities. All the trucks and spare parts were sold to Jan De Rooy who returned to drive in the Dakar Rally only in 2002, when he was 58, obtaining a sixth place in the truck class, paired with his son Gerardus in another DAF.
The 10th running of the Dakar Rally event, held in 1988 proved to be one of the worst in history, the toll being seven people killed during the stages. Kees van Loevezijn was one of three competitors, the other deceased persons were four spectators. Belgian rider André Malherbe fell near Tamanrasset, Algeria, suffering severe injuries that would have left him paralyzed. PanAfrican news agency, representing the Dakar Rally organizers publicly stated that the four spectator deaths were “insignificant for the organizers”, attracting immense criticism from the Vatican.
R.I.P
