An improvised rally in Jaco Beach that sent two young girls to the hospital after being struck by a sports car racing down a dirt road may have been organized under false pretenses. According to an investigative report by a daily tabloid newspaper in Costa Rica, a corrupt transit police officer may have issued falsified racing permits to naive rally organizers.

In Costa Rica, Diario Extra is known for its garish covers, sensationalistic reporting and photo spread of curvy and scantily-clad Ticas in seductive poses. Diario Extra’s journalists, however, are also known for their tenacious reporting and their knack for uncovering irregularities in law enforcement circles. In this particular instance, reporters from Diario Extra have revealed that transit police officials and their union representatives have tried to cover up misdeeds with the finesse of Inspector Clouseau.

The accident occurred on November 8^th during a rally event in Jaco Beach, which was sponsored and organized by the Costa Rica Rally Association (Spanish acronym: AORA). Two 11-year old girls from the Montelimar community in Jaco Beach were following the racing action by the side of the road were struck as a rally car performed a power slide maneuver to negotiate a challenging turn. The girls suffered multiple concussions and skeletal fractures and were rushed to the Monsignor Sanabria Hospital and later to the National Children’s Hospital in San Jose.

According to Diario Extra, both girls received excellent care and are recovering at an impressive rate despite the extensive orthopedic surgeries and large casts they will have to bear for the next few months. Neighbors from Montelimar chipped in with cash donations for the working-class families of the girls. Meanwhile, reporters from Diario Extra have been busy compiling the following facts:

• The transit police officer who responded to the scene was more interested in issuing a citation based on the rally car’s missed RITEVE technical and emission inspection than on the victims of the accident. He actually did not even take down the names of the girls until a regional transit police supervisor ordered him to run to the Monsignor Sanabria Hospital to get the missing information.
• When the regional transit police supervisor showed up to the scene the rally had already finished. He spoke to a man who identified himself as a rally organizer and named three transit police officers who had provided him with a permit to hold the event.
• Diario Extra now speculates that the permits may have been falsified, and the National Union of Transit Professionals (Spanish acronym: Unatepro) is rushing to explain that the transit police officer who responded to the call was operating under duress.
• The officer allegedly arrived without a partner and was not even supposed to be on duty at the time; furthermore, his police radio unit was malfunctioning and he did not carry a Breathalyzer kit (it is apparently procedural to conduct alcohol breath tests at rally events in Costa Rica, which tend to attract quite a few beer drinkers).

The last point made by Diario Extra is that a portion of the rally circuit may have run out into a public road, which would deem the entire event an illegal street racing event and thus call for the automatic confiscation of all vehicles.