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F1 driver Webber seriously injured
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-22 14:02
HOBART _ Australian Formula One driver Mark Webber suffered serious leg injuries when hit by a car Saturday during a charity multi-sport race, police said.

Red Bull Formula One driver Mark Webber of Australia checks his machine at his pit before Sunday's Japanese F1 Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway in Oyama, central Japan, October 9, 2008. [Agencies]

Webber, who drives for F1's Red Bull team, was cycling along a road near historic Port Arthur in the southeast of the island state of Tasmania when he collided with a four-wheel drive vehicle, Tasmania Police Sgt. Jon Ford said.

"As a result of the collision, the rider, Mark Webber, suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries," Ford said. "He was attended at the scene by paramedics attached to the event before being airlifted to the Royal Hobart Hospital."

Media reports quoted search and rescue police officer Damian Bidgood also as saying Webber appeared to have a serious lower leg injury.

"Unfortunately he's had a head-on," Bidgood said. "It will put him out of action for a while."

A Royal Hobart nursing supervisor said Webber had been transferred to Hobart Private Hospital, where a person who answered the telephone at the hospital and would not identify herself said she had been told to make no comment on Webber's condition.

Event director Geoff Donohue said he could not confirm reports that Webber had suffered multiple arm and leg fractures until doctors had a chance to properly diagnose the Australian driver.

"It would appear he's suffered a fractured leg but until doctors confirm the extent of Mark's injuries, we won't know for sure _ it's still early days," Donohue told Australian Associated Press.

"Mark's in good spirits. Paramedics attached to the event attended to Mark very swiftly and he's had really good treatment at the scene before being transferred to hospital. It was a really unfortunate accident."

Donohue said it was unclear whether the accident would impact on Webber's preseason training for the 2009 Formula One racing season, although a broken leg would likely leave him on the sidelines for at least six weeks.

"That's jumping ahead a bit," Donohue said. "He would certainly have other ideas about that. Right now, it's a wait-and-see situation."

Red Bull has already begun testing ahead of the 2009 F1 season. The team's next scheduled testing session is in Jerez in southern Spain from December 9.

The accident happened while Webber was competing in his own charity event, the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge, a 250-kilometer (175-mile) challenge using mountain bikes, kayaks and trekking, when the accident happened.

Ford said the event was being raced on open public roads and it was not known whether the stage along that road was cordoned off for the racers.

The challenge, first staged in 2003, is scheduled to end Sunday in Hobart.