R.I.P. Shoya Tomizawa

Tomizawa was competing in the eleventh round of the inaugural Moto2 World Championship, the San Marino Grand Prix at the Misano World Circuit on September 5, 2010. On lap 12, Tomizawa fell at the Curvone, a fast right-hand corner, when he was forced wide and lost grip in his front tyre. He was then hit by the motorbikes of Scott Redding and Alex de Angelis in which he suffered cranial, thoracic and abdominal trauma. He was initially taken to the circuit's medical centre, before being transferred to hospital in Riccione.He died from his injuries at 14:20 local time in hospital, aged 19.His death was announced at the end of the MotoGP race. The podium flags were lowered to half-mast, and the podium was celebrated without champagne.
Tomizawa was the first on-track fatality at Grand Prix level since his countryman Daijiro Kato was killed in the senior class at Suzuka in 2003. Tomizawa had placed Kato's racing number 74 on his left shoulder as a tribute to him.
Questions have been raised about the treatment of Tomizawa in the aftermath of the crash. Both he and Redding were hurriedly removed from the scene and bundled onto stretchers; the stretcher carrying Tomizawa appeared to be dropped in the gravel trap before he was removed.MotoGP Doctor Claudio Macchiagodena explained that "Many times it is very important to quickly have support. In this situation if you remove quickly, in my opinion, you have more possibility [to help the patient]" - a statement which ignores the possibility of spinal injuries.Alex Hofmann originally reported on German TV that neither Tomizawa nor Redding had suffered life-threatening injuries; he had apparently received this information from Dorna themselves.