Notes:
The 1988 edition of the traditional Rallye Sanremo was different from previous years as the city of Turin paid a substantial amount of money to support the event and to have some stages in its neighbourhood, and along with it came the title "Trofeo Città di Torino". New routes brought a very significant change, the event became known as the 30º Rallye Sanremo - Rallye d'Italia. It was the first time the denomination Rally d’Italia was associated to it, and years later the words Rallye d’Italia would appear it much larger font than Rallye Sanremo in the official plates. Always one of the most popular stops of the World Rally Championship, Rallye Sanremo would be part of that schedule until 2004, when it was replaced by the Rally Italia Sardinia.

Bad weather and rain marred the 1988 Rallye Sanremo; in such conditions, one of the newly added stages around Turin, the 7th special stage, named "Lanzo 1", would be the scene of a series of accidents in the early hours of Tuesday, 11 October 1988. It included a treacherous spot - a turn with a steep valley on its outside, less than one kilometer before the finish line - which was made even more difficult by the wet roads. The first to crash at that turn was the works Toyota Celica GT-Four of Juha Kankkunen-Juha Piironen; the accident damaged the car and put the World Champions out of contention. Carole Vergnaud was next, crashing her Citroën AX Sport at the same place and plunging into the ravine, and not much later the Opel Manta of Rocchieri-Guerrini followed.

To the astonishment of Vergnaud, who had climbed back up to the road, the next vehicle of fellow Citroën racers Jean-Marc Dubois-Robert Moynier flew over the guard-rail, went over the edge and into the 30-meter canyon; the Citroën AX Sport #121 rolled further down the hill landing upside down into the banks of the Bettole river. Crushed by the car's roof Dubois died immediately, his co-driver Moynier succumbed to his injuries shortly afterwards, before the ambulance had arrived.

"I did everything I could to warn the oncoming crews, I placed a warning sign and was waving my arms to signal them to slow down, but still it happened" the startled Carole Vergnaud said later. Due to the accident the 7th special stage was stopped.

According to magazine Rombo, issue of 18 October 1988, Dubois' car didn't slow down before the bend, crashed into the rocks and flew over the guard-rail. It is not clear whether the car had braking failure or the navigator's note before the turn was incorrect, this has not yet been clarified.

Jean-Marc Dubois was a 37-years-old engineer of the French electricity, from Rosny-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, who had been vice-champion in 1987 tout-terrain French Rally series. Robert Moynier was a bank employee and an expert rally navigator aged 42, who had co-driven to Francis Bondil in the previous years. This was his first outing alongside Jean-Marc Dubois, in the original entry list of the event Serge Jalabert was listed as Dubois' co-driver, but he was replaced by Moynier before the start of the rally.

Another huge accident happened during the following 9th special stage "Pessinetto-Lanzo" of the rally. The Lancia Delta of Giacomo Bossini-Ugo Pasotti crashed into a group of spectators, one of them had one of his legs amputated. Miki Biasion-Tiziano Siviero in a works Martini Lancia Delta Integrale eventually were the winners of the rally.

• French Death Index, 1970-2020, retrieved by website MyHeritage: https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10823-7347077/jean-marc-dubois-in-france-death-index?s=716420611 .
• Magazine Rombo, issue of 18 October 1988.
• Newspaper "La Stampa" (Turin, Italy) issue of 12 October 1988, page 16, article "Dramma al Rally, morti 2 piloti", retrieved by website http://www.archiviolastampa.it/ .
• Website Rally Base, by Tjeerd van der Zee, pages http://www.rallybase.nl/index.php?type=result&rallyid=200 and http://www.rallybase.nl/index.php?type=championlist&subchamptype=wcd .
• Website Rally Italia Sardinia, page http://www.rallyitalia-sardinia.com .
• E-mail by Piet Ram, dated 31 August 2004, citing book "World Rallying 11", by Martin Holmes, page 118, citing also newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, issue of 13 October 1988.
• E-mail by Pier Paolo Garagnani, dated 01 September 2004.
• E-mail by Tjeerd van der Zee, dated 01 September 2004, citing book "World Rallying 11", by Martin Holmes, page 118, citing also book "Rally's & Races 88/89", citing also Rallycourse.
• E-mail by Tjeerd van der Zee, dated 02 September 2004.
• E-mail by Tjeerd van der Zee, dated 03 September 2004.