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Spectator arrested for allegedly causing massive Tour de France crash

Three riders withdrew from the race, according to the organizers.

PARIS -- After a four-day search, a woman was arrested Wednesday as part of the investigation into a large crash at the Tour de France earlier last week, according to local prosecutors.

The 30-year-old suspect turned herself into police and expressed feelings "of shame, of fear, in the face of the consequences of her act," public prosecutor Camille Miansoni said Thursday. She is "distressed by the media coverage of what she calls 'her blunder,'" added Miansoni.

Prosecutors said police would take measures "proportionate to the seriousness of the facts and to the personality of the author."

The woman is accused of causing a large crash by holding a sign in front of cyclists in the opening stage of the competition on Saturday. She had allegedly left the scene before authorities arrived. Her cardboard sign read "allez opi-omi," meaning "go grandma-grandpa" in German.

After the crash, three riders withdrew from the race due to their injuries, according to the Tour's organizers, including German cyclist Jasha Sütterlin of Team DSM.

"Following the crash, he was taken to hospital for examinations which revealed no broken bones, but a severe contusion to his right wrist that will require further examinations back at home," Team DSM said in a statement about Sütterlin, who admitted he was "so disappointed."

Tony Martin, a member of top Tour contender Primoz Roglic's Jumbo Visma squad, hit the woman on the right side of the road, causing a domino effect for riders inside the peloton.

The first fall was followed by another, which injured four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome.

Riders briefly halted the race on Tuesday to protest against the danger caused by spectators who were too close to the road.

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"Following the crashes during the third stage of the Tour de France, the riders have been discussing how they wish to proceed to show their dissatisfaction with safety measures in place and demand their concerns are taken seriously," the riders' union, the Cyclistes Professionnels Associés, said in a statement. "Their frustration about foreseeable and preventable action is enormous."

MORE: French authorities investigate pile up crash at the Tour de France

The local chief of police Nicolas Duvinage on Thursday called for calm in a press conference, saying the suspect was trying to send a message on TV to her grandparents and that it is "wise not to carry out a media lynching."

Fearing a backlash, Tour de France organizers decided to drop their suit against the fan in question and withdrew their complaint "for the sake of appeasement ... in the face of the excitement on social media," said Tour director Pierre-Yves Thouault. "We don't want to look like we are flogging a dead horse. But we remind you of the safety rules."

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Spectator causes major Tour de France crash on stage 15

The Tour de France has suffered its second major crash in as many days, this time caused by a rider coming into contact with a spectator.

Aerial footage from the host broadcaster showed American rider Sepp Kuss — riding for Jumbo-Visma — hitting the arm of a spectator with roughly 129km left on stage 15 of the race.

After hitting the spectator, Kuss then hit his teammate Nathan Van Hooydonck, who bore the brunt of the crash as he crumpled to the road resulting in a pile-up behind him.

Van Hooydonck was able to get back onto his bike and continue, with blood visible on his body.

Several riders were caught up in the crash, including Colombian Egan Bernal who won the race in 2019.

There were no abandonments as a result of the crash, despite several riders showing signs of injury.

In a statement on social media, Jumbo-Visma urged spectators to be mindful when the riders pass by. 

"Please be always aware when watching cycling at the side of the road," they said. 

While the crash was a major moment for the Jumbo-Visma team, their main rider and race leader Jonas Vingegaard was able to narrowly avoid the carnage.

Vingegaard's main rival, two-time champion Tadej Pogačar also avoided the crash as well as Australian Jai Hindley, who entered the stage fourth in the general classification.

There was a major crash early on stage 14 , which led to a stoppage of approximately 20 minutes as several riders were assessed by medical staff.

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Spectator who caused chaotic Tour de France crash arrested

LAVAL, France —The spectator who caused a massive pile-up during the first stage of the Tour de France has been arrested after presenting herself at a police station, a source close to the investigation said Wednesday.

The spectator, a 30-year-old French woman, is in custody at a police station in Landerneau, Brittany, the northwest French region where the Tour de France, the world's biggest cycling event, held its first four stages.

The spectator is accused of involuntarily causing injury and putting the life of others at risk.

On Saturday, German cyclist Tony Martin was sent tumbling when he rode straight into a cardboard sign being held out by a fan looking the other way at a television camera, creating chaos with around 30 miles left of the stage.

Another huge pile-up occurred in a nervy finale on narrow roads on Monday, leading the Tour de France riders to put their collective foot down around a mile into the fourth stage on Tuesday — literally — bringing the race to a halt for about a minute in a silent protest for safer racing conditions after the crashes.

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The Tour de France normally sees thousands of fans cheer on the riders from the sidelines as they advance through the race’s grueling stages for three weeks.

With most Covid-19 restrictions lifted in France, enthusiastic fans took to the streets of picturesque villages along the route on the opening day of the race, and thousands lined the roads of the Brittany countryside.

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Tour de France team consider legal action after fan causes crash

• Pile-up brought down multiple riders in 15th stage on Sunday
• Leader Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma team could press charges

The team of the Tour de France leader, Jonas Vingegaard, are considering pressing charges after a spectator caused a massive crash during the 15th stage to Saint-Gervais Mont‑Blanc on Sunday.

One of the defending champion’s key Jumbo-Visma teammates, the American climber Sepp Kuss, crashed after being caught by the outstretched arm of a fan as the peloton raced past. Kuss’s fall caused a domino effect through the peloton with multiple other riders also hitting the tarmac, in echoes of a similar incident caused by a fan with a placard, endured by the same team in the 2021 race.

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According to Reuters, the gendarmerie have identified the individual but will not arrest them unless Kuss wishes to take matters further. However, a spokesperson for Jumbo-Visma said: “The team might. We’ll find out how and when.”

The weekend’s stages were marked by several incidents involving race motorbikes and overexcited spectators. On Saturday, media motorbikes were slowed and hemmed in by large crowds at the top of the Col de Joux Plane and, as well as the mass fall on Sunday, the Latvian rider Krists Neilands also crashed while taking a drink from an in-race motorbike on a fast Alpine descent.

Team Cofidis were one of those to tell spectators that they “don’t need a cellphone to make memories”. However, the Tour de France entered into a new partnership with the social media giant TikTok shortly before this year’s race began and has actively encouraged fans to create content.

In a press release from 22 June, Julien Goupil, the media and partnerships director for the Tour promoter, ASO, described TikTok as a “perfect match” for the Tour and said “the content created at the roadside will enhance existing coverage and bring the public together around the event even more widely”.

Conscious of the need for a younger demographic of fans and influencers, the Tour has been seeking to attract a new audience for several years and is itself extremely active on social media. Selfie sticks, phones and even rogue drones are also commonplace at the roadside, despite the Tour’s best efforts to limit any interference in the racing.

But this is an impossible task. The Tour de France is a free, unticketed event that draws hundreds of thousands to the roadside, especially when it arrives in the mountains, where sleep-deprived fans camp out for days on end, living on a diet of sunshine, cheap beer and not-so-fine wines.

In reality, it is a health and safety nightmare and has been so for more than a century. The most renowned climb for spectator interaction is the hair-pinned ascent to Alpe d’Huez, where organised chaos somehow prevails as the riders pass through the sea of partying fans.

When Giuseppe Guerini broke clear of the peloton and climbed towards a career-best victory on the prestigious stage to the Alpe in July 1999, he didn’t expect to be brought down by a bespectacled 19-year-old wielding an Instamatic camera. But the Italian rider hadn’t reckoned with Eric, surname unknown, standing motionless in the middle of the most famous climb in cycling, waiting to click his shutter. The pair collided, Guerini fell, then got to his feet, received a push from the hapless Eric, yet carried on to win the stage.

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More recently, in 2016, the planned finish at the top of Mont Ventoux was aborted because of high winds at the summit and the finish line brought much lower down the mountain to Chalet Reynard. Thousands of spectators moved to the new finish line, and overcrowding caused a blockade of fans, motorbikes and fallen riders including the race leader, Chris Froome, who, with his team car blocked by the throng, opted to jog most of the remaining distance.

Such incidents are as old as the Tour itself. Tacks on the road, dogs and sometimes even horses blocking the path of riders, while brawling partisan fans trying to sabotage a rival and protesters – ranging from farmers, to fisherman and climate activists – are all part of the Tour’s history. Only a massive police presence, a huge investment in crowd barriers and the increased awareness of occasional cycling fans, rather than diehards, will eradicate the problem.

Meanwhile the duel in the sun, between Vingegaard and his closest rival, Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates, who are separated by only 10 seconds, resumes on Tuesday in the 22.4km time trial from Passy to Combloux, at the foot of Mont Blanc.

It has also been confirmed that Vingegaard, whether he becomes Tour champion or not, will not be racing for Denmark in the Glasgow-based UCI world championships in August.

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Tour de France Fan Is Fined for Causing Huge Crash in June

The fan’s cardboard sign, held up for television cameras with a message for her grandparents, sent dozens of cyclists tumbling to the ground.

By Aurelien Breeden

PARIS — A French court on Thursday convicted and fined a Tour de France spectator whose cardboard sign caused a pileup of dozens of cyclists during the world-famous competition in June.

The spectator, a 31-year-old woman who has not been publicly identified, was found guilty by a criminal court in Brest of reckless endangerment and involuntarily causing injuries.

The woman, who stepped onto the road during the race and had her back to the cyclists, was fined 1,200 euros, or about $1,350 — far less than the maximum penalties she was facing.

The charges under consideration carried a possible one-year prison term and a fine of €15,000. At the woman’s trial, in October, prosecutors requested a four-month suspended prison sentence. She did not have a previous criminal record.

The crash occurred on June 26 in the Finistère area of Brittany, in western France, less than 30 miles from the finish line in the first of the race’s 21 stages.

The woman, who wore a bright yellow jacket, was facing television cameras and holding a piece of cardboard bearing an affectionate message for her grandparents — longtime fans of the Tour who were watching from Paris — when a German rider, Tony Martin, hit the sign.

Mr. Martin fell to the ground, setting off a cascade of collisions in the middle of the main cluster of cyclists zooming by. Several injured riders were forced to drop out of the competition.

Video of the pileup quickly went viral, focusing intense media scrutiny on the woman, who left the scene before the police could reach her. Prosecutors opened an investigation, and the woman turned herself in four days later.

Crashes caused by reckless spectators or vehicles are not uncommon during professional cycling competitions , in which thousands of cheering fans line roads right next to the cyclists.

During the 2016 Tour, spectators who blocked a television motorcycle created such chaos that the holder of the race leader’s yellow jersey had to briefly head up a mountain pass on foot to try to maintain his lead.

Aurelien Breeden has covered France from the Paris bureau since 2014. He has reported on some of the worst terrorist attacks to hit the country, the dismantling of the migrant camp in Calais and France's tumultuous 2017 presidential election. More about Aurelien Breeden

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Tour De France Officials Search For Spectator Who Caused Massive Crash

Race officials plan to file a lawsuit against the female spectator who caused the pileup when she stepped onto the road in the first stage of the race on Saturday.

NOEL KING, HOST:

Spectators are finally returning to big sporting events, which is great, but over the weekend, the Tour de France got a dramatic display of the downside of fans coming back.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It happened during the first stage of the race.

FRED DREIER: And the peloton is rumbling through a narrow road out there in the middle of Brittany, France. And there was a fan on the side of the road holding a sign.

MARTIN: That's Fred Dreier, editor-in-chief of the cycling website VeloNews. The fan's message was a German term of endearment for a grandparent, but it was pointed at the cameras, not the riders.

KING: And so the sign hit a biker who was at the head of the pack, and he went tumbling.

DREIER: And when crashes happen at the front of the peloton in situations like this, it's just a domino effect. And you see dozens of riders going down.

KING: Other sporting events might pause or reset because of that kind of interruption. But racers on the tour who were caught in the crash have no such luck.

DREIER: It's sort of like the New England Patriots starting the Super Bowl all of a sudden down three touchdowns because of something that happened inside the first two minutes of the game.

MARTIN: Dreier says while this crash was especially bad, crashes during bike races in general aren't that uncommon.

DREIER: You watch enough a bike races, you see crazy stuff like this all the time, you know, dogs running out into the course. I remember a few years ago - I believed it was a race in Spain - a horse ran onto the course, and all of a sudden, the riders are just sort of, you know, riding along, just hoping they're not going to get knocked over by this horse.

MARTIN: It's unclear whether that horse faced any consequences, but Tour de France organizers have said they plan to sue the woman with the sign if they can find her. They suspect she left France after the incident.

DREIER: As far as I know, this woman has not yet been located. But, yeah, the Tour de France organizer is making a big public fuss about this.

KING: Some riders have asked for more barriers between themselves and spectators. But Dreier says that given the race is hundreds of miles and there are millions of watchers along the path, there's really no point.

DREIER: People using their best judgment, you're relying on people being on their best behavior for this thing to go off. And most of the time, it does. Like, 99.9% of the time it does.

KING: And for that 99.9% of the time, seeing that event live and in person is special for a lot of fans.

DREIER: I tell people to think of them like they are a Fourth of July parade. Like, we all went to Fourth of July parades as kids. Many of us may take our kids to Fourth of July parade some days. And you go because you went there as a kid and because it's sort of part of our culture.

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Tour de France crash suspect arrested after manhunt: reports

The woman has yet to be identified but is facing a lawsuit from the tour.

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A woman who caused a massive pileup during the Tour de France on Saturday was reportedly arrested in France.

The woman who was not immediately identified was taken into custody in Brittany, near where the Tour de France held its first four stages, Reuters reported, citing French media. 

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BFM Television and RTL both reported, citing police sources, that the woman is in custody.

The woman has been accused of involuntarily causing injury and faces a more than $1,700 fine, according to Cycling News .

French authorities said the suspect, dressed in blue jeans, a red and white striped shirt and a yellow raincoat, fled the scene before anyone could reach her. She was holding a sign that read "ALLEZ OPI-OMI!" as cyclist Tony Martin and his teammates crashed into her.

TOUR DE FRANCE FANS UNDER SCRUTINY AFTER ONE SPECTATOR CAUSED PILE-UP

Riders hit the woman's sign. (French Gendarmerie)

According to  Ouest-France , the woman fled the scene and was believed to have traveled to Germany. She intended to send a message for her grandparents.

Several videos posted on social media showed a spectator holding out a cardboard sign on the side of the road when a rider in the peloton crashed into the sign, causing a massive pileup. 

Tour deputy director Pierre-Yves Thouault told  AFP  that the organization plans to sue.

"We are suing this woman who behaved so badly," he said. "We are doing this so that the tiny minority of people who do this do not spoil the show for everyone."

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Crashes on the Tour forced riders to urge organizers to implement more safety measures. Riders staged a brief protest during the fourth stage on Tuesday. 

Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.

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Remco Evenepoel's Tour de France ambitions back on track after high-speed Itzulia crash

T hree weeks on from fracturing collarbone and scapula at Itzulia Basque Country, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) is back in training in preparation for his debut at the Tour de France . 

The Belgian star posted the first activity to his Strava account since the horrific crash, which also left two-time defending Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) with a pneumothorax, broken collarbone and ribs.

“On my way back,” Evenepoel titled a 98.7km ride near into Flanders from home to the west of Brussels. 

Evenepoel's injuries are not as severe as Vingegaard, who only got out of hospital in Spain last week. He was swiftly back in Belgium for collarbone surgery and recovered quickly, convinced that he can still be ready for the Tour de France Grand Depart on June 29.

The ambitious, but realistic 24-year-old, stated earlier this season that reaching the Tour de France podium in Nice at the end of July "would be a dream come true".

Evenepoel enjoyed a final day of recovery with a trip to Britain to see Arsenal football match in London. The time trial World Champion then completed a near-three hour 98.75km ride around Schepdaal, where he grew up, at a solid average speed of 34.7km/h. 

The next step on the “#RoadToFrance” as his caption read will see him head to Sierra Nevada for an altitude camp with Soudal-QuickStep. Following this, he will be off to either the Critérium du Dauphiné or Tour de Suisse, depending on fitness, to regain his race rhythm and punch before the Tour kicks off in Florence.

Vingegaard in contrast has been ruled out of attending Visma-Lease a Bike’s upcoming training camp with an appearance at the Tour still in doubt unless he is at his best according to the Dutch team.

If the Dane is to miss out, Evenepoel and Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe), who also crashed out of Itzulia but without any fractures, would become the top contenders to challenge the former two-time Tour winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).

Evenepoel’s compatriot Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) has similarly been making a return to riding on the road since crashing out of Dwars door Vlaanderen in March. The Belgian pair share the same physiotherapist who has overseen their returns to fitness.

Thijs Hertsens from LAB Antwerp is the man looking after the superstars in Belgium and his work hasn’t gone unnoticed with both men returning to the road this week. 

Van Aert was shown on video turning the pedals for the first time since his high-speed crash on Wednesday.

"After working a lot on his mobility, he [Evenepoel] is already back on track,” Hertsens told Sporza earlier this week, clearly aware of how close Evenepoel was to getting back out on the road.

Van Aert has worked with the physiotherapist since his awful crash at the 2019 Tour de France and Evenepoel since his horror incident at the 2020 Il Lombardia.

"Cyclists are hard workers by nature, so it is very pleasant to guide them,” said Hertsens.

Van Aert's goals have been derailed due to his crash but he will switch focus to the Paris Olympics where he and Evenepoel will lead a top-level Belgian team that will want to claim both the road race and the time trial.

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Cycling star Evenepoel targets June return from crash ahead of Tour de France and Paris Olympics

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BRUSSELS (AP) — Two weeks after crashing heavily in Spain, two-time world champion Remco Evenepoel said on Friday he’s on track to race again in June ahead of the Tour de France and Paris Olympics.

The Belgian needed surgery after breaking a collar bone and shoulder blade in a crash while descending in the Tour of Basque Country.

Evenepoel will train at high altitude before a planned return to racing at the Critérium du Dauphiné in France from June 2-9 or the week after at the Tour de Suisse, he said in an interview broadcast by his team Soudal–Quick-Step.

He won the worlds time trial last year and the road race in 2022, and should target both Olympic events on the streets of Paris on back-to-back Saturdays — July 27 and Aug. 3. First, he will make his Tour de France debut on June 29.

“It’s going to be something special. Especially the Tour,” Evenepoel said. “It makes it a bit easier to do Tour-Olympics because it’s in the same country, not too far like it was three years ago to go to Tokyo. That was more difficult for a lot of guys.”

Evenepoel raced in both Olympic road events in Japan. He placed ninth in the time trial, more than one minute out of the medals and trailing 2 minutes, 17 seconds behind gold medalist Primož Roglič.

Roglič was caught up in Evenepoel’s crash in Spain and also will miss the one-day classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday. Evenepoel won the past two editions of the storied race.

Evenepoel said the early spring injury gave him time to recover like it was a midseason break. It let him spend the Eid al-Fitr holiday last week with his wife Oumi Rayane and her family.

“That was a very beautiful day,” he said. “It’s better to have the injury now than in a couple of weeks. It’s a bit of luck in my bad luck.”

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Remco Evenepoel targets Tour de France, says 'pain is getting less and less' after frightening crash

Updated 19/04/2024 at 18:04 GMT

A frightening incident at the Itzulia Basque Country earlier in April saw Remco Evenepoel break a collarbone and shoulder blade as several riders suffered serious injuries. Speaking publicly for the first time since then, Evenepoel said that his recovery is going well and was optimistic of recovering in time for a summer featuring the Tour de France and Paris Olympics.

Watch highlights as Evenepoel sprints to win Stage 8 of Paris-Nice, as Jorgenson takes GC

Evenepoel discharged from hospital after successful collarbone surgery

07/04/2024 at 20:42

• Stage 5 highlights: Paret-Peintre wins final stage after Thomas attack, Lopez tops GC
• 'Now it's time to fully recover' - Vingegaard released from hospital after crash

Jonas Vignegaard und Remco Evenepoel

Image credit: Getty Images

Evenepoel crashes after sliding out in corner

'room for growth and improvement,' says evenepoel ahead of ardennes classics tilt.

11/03/2024 at 18:17

Jorgenson wins Paris-Nice, Evenepoel takes Stage 8 victory

10/03/2024 at 15:09

Pogacar could target historic Grand Tour treble in same year, says Contador

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Universal Studios tram tossed “multiple” riders to the ground, accident investigators say

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A tram vehicle at Universal Studios Hollywood threw “multiple” riders to the ground after it struck a guardrail near props from the “Jurassic Park” film franchise in an accident that is under investigation by the California Highway Patrol.

Details of the accident that took place Saturday night — amid the 60th anniversary of the attraction — remain sketchy, but the CHP said the agency has determined that drugs and alcohol were not a factor in the crash that injured 15 park visitors.

For the record:

3:01 p.m. April 22, 2024 An earlier version of this article said 15 riders on the Universal Studios Hollywood tram attraction were thrown to the ground. The California Highway Patrol said “multiple” riders were thrown to the ground and that a total of 15 were injured.

The tram was driving through the storied Universal Studios back lot shortly after 9 p.m. when the crash occurred, according to authorities.

The linked tram cars passed by a set of props from the “Jurassic Park” film franchise when the tram driver turned onto Avenue M and for some unknown reason the last car in the procession collided with the metal guardrail on the right side, the CHP said. This caused the tram to “tilt and eject multiple passengers from the tram,” authorities said in a news release.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department received a call for service shortly after 9 p.m. for the crash and 15 passengers were transported to a hospital with minor to moderate injuries.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department also responded to the scene but the CHP is the lead agency, a Universal Studios spokesperson said.

At least 14 hurt as MTA bus is part of four-vehicle ‘rollover collision’ in South L.A.

Firefighters and paramedics were on the scene and had assessed and treated 14 people, including bus riders and other vehicle passengers.

March 28, 2024

“Our thoughts continue to be with the guests who were involved, and we are thankful that based on agency reports, the injuries sustained were minor,” Universal Studios said in a statement.

The theme park is working closely with authorities as Universal Studios continues its “review of the incident and safety remains a top priority.”

The Studio Tour tram ride, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this week, will continue to operate with a modified route and the theme park will reinforce its “operational and safety protocols.”

The status of the injured passengers was unclear as of Monday.

In many ways, the tram ride came to define the theme park.

Over the years, countless riders have enjoyed close encounters with a robotic shark depicting the blood-thirsty animal in the movie “Jaws,” a terrifying stop outside the Bates Motel from the film classic “Psycho” and a harrowing escape from the clutches of King Kong.

Goofy is sued for negligence, inflicting trauma, in Disneyland collision

A woman has sued Disneyland and an unnamed employee in a Goofy costume, claiming the character actor hurt her in a fall.

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Newer film franchises have joined the tour, including a stroll through a suburban neighborhood wasted by aliens from the 2005 film “War of the Worlds” to a western-themed sideshow from Jordan Peele’s 2022 movie “Nope.”

The tram tour got its start in 1964 when Universal Studios executives noticed that food sales at the studio commissary shot up after local tour buses were allowed past the studio gates to let fans get a glimpse of the back lot movie sets and props.

The first iteration of the attraction were the pink-and-white Glamour Trams, which carried about 38,200 riders in the first year. Passengers paid $2.50 for a two-and-a-half hour tour that included stops to see a stunt show and a movie makeup exhibition.

Entertainment & Arts

How the Universal Studios tram tour defined the modern theme park

The most important theme park ride ever created? It may just be the Universal Studios tram tour, which dates to the silent film era. Once primarily a behind-the-scenes tour, the trek has evolved to define the modern theme park.

Aug. 3, 2023

Later renamed the Universal Studios Studio Tour, the trams have since endured real life fires, labor strife, a series of expansions and at least one fatal accident.

The theme park launched a renovation project in 2022 to begin converting the diesel-hydraulic powered vehicles to run on electricity to reduce emissions. It is not clear if the tram that struck the guard rail was a newer electric vehicle or an older version.

This is not the first time an accident happened at the theme park. In 1986, a park employee was run over by the tram during a special Halloween “Fright Nights” show . Paul Rebalde, 20, was stationed on a parked tram filled with mannequins dressed to look like corpses, the Sheriff’s Department said at the time.

While in costume, Rebalde was to leap from among the mannequins on the parked tram and frighten people passing on moving trams, but was trapped between the third and fourth sections of one of the four-section moving trams and was run over and dragged to his death, according to authorities. The Halloween-themed attraction was paused for several years and later rebranded “Halloween Horror Nights.”

More recently, a stunt performer was hospitalized after performing in the “Waterworld” show in January 2023 . The performer was set on fire shortly before taking a leap off a tower in the show’s finale. The “Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular” show is inspired by the 1995 Kevin Costner film and opened months after the movie’s debut.

Times editor Hugo Martin contributed to this report.

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More than a dozen injured after crash involving tram at Universal Studios

By Dean Fioresi

Updated on: April 21, 2024 / 5:36 PM PDT / KCAL News

Fifteen people were injured during a crash involving a tram at Universal Studios Hollywood on Saturday. 

Los Angeles County Fire Department crews rushed to the scene, located at 3900 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, at around 9 p.m. on Saturday. 

Investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department say that there were 15 injuries, and despite earlier reports, none appear to critical and all are non-life-threatening. All of the victims were hospitalized. 

"The collision caused several passengers to fall out of the vehicle. LA County Fire treated people on-scene and several were transported via ambulance to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries," said a statement from the Sheriff's Information Bureau. 

Early in the investigation, deputies reported that they believed that the crash was the result of some sort of mechanical failure, but California Highway Patrol investigators deemed that was not the case. 

On Sunday afternoon, CHP released a statement that said the crash happened in the backlot of the studio just after the tram had passed the "Jurassic Park Cars." 

While turning left onto Avenue M, the last car of the four-car tram collided with a guard rail on the right side of the road, according to CHP. 

The collision caused the car to "tilt and eject multiple passengers from the tram," their statement said. 

The cause of the crash remains unclear. Alcohol and drugs are not considered to be a factor. 

SkyCal flew over the scene, where a group of people could be seen as they were being treated by paramedics. A separate larger group was led away from the tram and loaded onto a bus. 

"Saturday night on the Studio Tour, a tram collided with a guard rail while making a left turn," said a statement from Universal Studios Hollywood officials. "Our thoughts continue to be with the guests who were involved, and we are thankful that based on agency reports, the injuries sustained were minor. We are working closely with public agencies, including the California Highway Patrol, as we continue tour review of the incident and safety remains a top priority."

Officials say that the Studio Tours have resumed operation with a modified route on Sunday. 

Dean Fioresi is a web producer at KCAL News in Los Angeles. He covers breaking news throughout Southern California. When he's not writing about local events, he enjoys focusing on sports and entertainment.

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Tour of Turkey: Tobias Lund Andresen wins stage 4 sprint, moves into race lead

Dane claims first professional victory ahead of Van Poppel in second and Uhlig in third

Tobias Lund Andresen ((Dsm-firmenich PostNL) emerged from a hectic finish to win stage 4 of the Tour of Turkey in Bodrum.

The Dane needed a late bike change but returned to the peloton and then timed his effort perfectly on the rising finish after Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) and the remains of the early break were caught in the final kilometre.

Danny Van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) finished second and Henri Uhlig (Alpecin-Deceuninck) third as other riders slowed each other in the search for the best wheel to follow.

Thanks to his stage victory and the time bonuses, Lund Andresen also took the race leader’s blue jersey, which he will wear during the 177.9km fifth stage from Bodrum to Kuşadası.

Lund Andresen was overjoyed to win his first professional race.

“The plan was that if Fabio made it over the climb, we’d go with him but he didn’t have the leg, so we made a nice plan for me and the team did an amazing job and I was able to take the win,” he said.

“It was a hard stage, with a lot of climbing. The roads are not the best, so it’s almost like riding cobblestones the whole day. It was grippy but that was quite nice for me.”

A breakaway again tried to foil the sprinters’ teams and the peloton, with eight riders going away with 110 km to race of the 137.9 km stage.

They worked well together and extended their lead to close to 2:00 but then Polti-Kometa and Astana Qazaqstan drove the chase. The Italian team was keen to defend Giovanni Lonardi’s race lead, while Astana Qazaqstan rode for stage 2 winner Max Kanter.

The hilly profile of the stage again ruled out the pure sprinters, with Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan), Fabio Jakobsen (Dsm-firmenich PostNL) and others dropped from the peloton.

The break reduced to five riders over the final climb after 95 km but James Whelan (Q36.5), Calum Johnston (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA),  Tarozzi, Owen Geleijn (TDT - Unibet) and Gianni Marchand (Tarteletto-Isorex) pushed on and held a lead of 40 seconds on the fast ride to Bodrum.

Whelan split the attack on a late climb with 10km to go, with only Tarozzi, Johnston and Marchand able to go with him. They attacked each other and the pace eased so the peloton closed the gap on the run-in to the finish.

Tarozzi refused to give up hope and attacked alone inside the final kilometre. He got a gap but then faded on the rising finish as Lund Andresen timed his effort to perfection.

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Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters , Shift Active Media , and CyclingWeekly , among other publications.

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