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Banned Austrian coach in car crash as anti-doping war escalates
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-20 09:13
VIENNA, Austria - The banned Austrian ski coach at the center of a doping
investigation at the Turin Olympics crashed his car into a police roadblock
Sunday evening after leading authorities on a bizarre chase.
Austrian Nordic
trainer Walter Mayer is seen on this February 18, 2004 file photo in
Innsbruck, Austria. [AP] | Walter Mayer was
slightly injured in the accident, in which he struck an unoccupied police car
set up as an impromptu barrier in the town of Paternion in the southwestern
province of Carinthia, about 15 miles from the Italian frontier and some 250
miles from Turin, police said. He was taken into protective custody.
Mayer was returning to his native Austria just hours after Italian
authorities searched Austria's biathlon and cross-country team quarters for
banned substances. Police acted on a tipoff that Mayer — who was accused of
blood doping at the 2002 Olympics while he was Austria's Nordic team coach — was
with the team.
Italian police seized blood analysis equipment during the raids, as well as
syringes, vials of distilled water, asthma medication and other substances, the
national news agency ANSA reported, quoting unidentified investigative sources.
One Austrian athlete threw a bag out of a window containing needles and
medicines, and Mayer apparently left the scene in a minivan, ANSA said.
The chain of events in Austria started when Mayer pulled over to the side of
the road and took a nap in his car, a police statement said.
A suspicious local resident alerted police that a man was sleeping in a car
with the engine turned off, and when officers arrived on the scene to wake him
up, Mayer sped away, striking and slightly injuring an officer, the statement
said.
The officers on the scene then called for backup, and authorities parked an
empty police vehicle across the highway as a roadblock. Mayer slammed into the
squad car, totaling both vehicles.
Police said Mayer refused to take a blood-alcohol test, which an officer
requested after Mayer showed signs of intoxication.
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