The ninth edition of the Rallye de l'Ardèche, then a round of the 1998 Coupe de France des Rallyes, was suspended as a result of a fatal accident that claimed the lives of two people.

It happened at 15h15 on Saturday, 03 October 1998, during the sixth special stage of the rally. While passing on a straight line, just before a slight left-hander, the Peugeot 106 Maxi driven by Lionel Montagne-Martin Biju-Duval went off the road at speed over a bump, hitting a group of spectators.

A 34-year-old man, Jean-François Damas, was killed upon impact. Five other persons were severely injured. One of them, an five-year-old boy named Hugo Marion was taken in a coma to the Hôpital Edouard-Herriot at Lyon, where he succumbed to his injuries the following day.

The accident occurred on the Gerbier-de-Jonc mountain road, near the small village of Genestoux, less than one kilometer from the small town of Borée in the Ardèche department, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in southern France. The deceased people were four metres away from the road, in a spectator's area behind a braid fluorescent plastic. Hugues Delage-Marc Archer in a BMW 316i, were declared winners of the rally.

R.I.P