California

Daisy Nguyen

LOS ANGELES — A federal agency said Wednesday it had just one ranger patrolling a 50-mile off-road race course where a competing truck killed eight spectators gathered close to the Mojave Desert course.

The Bureau of Land Management said the ranger was patrolling the course in the Johnson Valley off-highway vehicle area more than a week ago when a spectator flagged him down and reported the truck had slammed into the crowd and overturned.

Dug Begley

Driving 70 mph through the hot Mexican desert a few years ago, Jim Patelli saw someone touch his fender.

"They just reached out and ... whoosh," Patelli recalled. "It was crazy. We're racing and the crowd thinks it can come onto the course."

VISALIA — Cal Fire investigators have determined the Stokes Mountain fire was caused by an all terrain vehicle.

The ATV’s exhaust system came in contact with the dry vegetation sparking the fire at about 8 p.m. Tuesday. It grew to 879 acres. The fire is now 100 percent contained, but fire crews were expected to remain on scene through Friday.

Regarding your editorial, “What to do about Pismo’s pigeons?” (Aug. 18): I am glad to know the Pismo Beach City Council is concerned enough to begin mitigating the water pollution at Pismo Beach following a three-year study by Cal Poly researchers connecting pigeon droppings as the major source of high bacteria in the water off Pismo Beach.

Is “common sense” what led city officials to suspect pigeons as the source of this localized contamination?

One week after a deadly off-road racing crash in the Mojave Desert killed eight people, including four San Diegans, members of the off-road racing community came together to discuss what's next for the sport.

Tommy Craft is a professional off-road racer, but last weekend's deadly crash in the Lucerne Valley was a shock he's still trying to understand.

Phil Willon

California's two U.S. senators Wednesday called on the federal Bureau of Land Management to explain why "proper precautions" were not in place for a Mojave Desert off-road race at which eight spectators were killed in a crash.

In a letter to BLM Director Bob Abbey, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer asked the agency to explain what safety measures were required during the California 200 nighttime race, held on desert land overseen by the federal agency in the Lucerne Valley.

The accident that killed eight people and injured 12 others at an off-road racing event in California's Mojave Desert last weekend has brought new focus to the popular but somewhat unregulated sport.

At the center of the discussion: Why were so many spectators so close to the race course without any sort of barrier or actively enforced safety zone?

Phil Wilon and David Zahniser

Fans of desert racing say nothing beats the danger, dust and noise of watching 3,500-pound trucks roaring past — close enough almost to touch — and then rocketing into the air over treacherous jumps with nicknames like "the rock pile."

The off-road derbies, which occur in remote stretches of the Mojave Desert, draw thousands and exist a world apart from the urban sprawl of Southern California. There are no guardrails, no enforced rules and no police to hold spectators back as they lean over the track with cellphones, snapping photos of oncoming trucks.

Gillian Flaccus

Zachary Freeman loved to fish, dirt bike and camp — but most of all, he loved to watch off-road truck racing in the vast Mojave Desert northeast of Los Angeles.

That love would cost the 24-year-old pipe welder and seven other off-road enthusiasts their lives when a truck competing in the annual California 200 careened off the sand track Saturday and into the crowd, instantly killing Freeman and his best friend.