A Completely Avoidable Tragedy Caused By Sheer Stupidity

[Lord Jim]

8 dead, 12 hurt at off-road race in Calif. desert

By ANDREW DALTON, Associated Press Writer Andrew Dalton, Associated Press Writer – Sun Aug 15, 7:15 am ET

LOS ANGELES – An off-road truck plowed into a crowd and scattered "bodies everywhere" moments after sailing off a jump at a California race Saturday, killing eight people and leaving 12 injured, authorities and witnesses said.

The crash came shortly after the start of the 8 p.m. PDT race called the California 200, said San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Bachman.

Bachman said eight people died and 12 were injured, several of them seriously. Seven ambulances and 10 emergency aircraft responded to the scene. Most of the injured were airlifted from the area to Loma Linda University Medical Center or St. Mary's Medical Center.

"There was dust everywhere, people screaming, people running," David Conklin, a photographer covering the event for off-road magazines, told The Associated Press.

Conklin said the Prerunner truck was among the first 20 off the line in the race, and had just gone over a jump known as "the rockpile" about two miles into the race.

He said he watched the vehicle sail through the air. Then he turned to watch for other cars when he heard the commotion caused by the crash.

"When I got up to the vehicle I could tell that several people were trapped. There were just bodies everywhere," he said. "One woman with a major head wound (was) lying in a pool of blood. Someone else was crushed beneath the car."

The truck came to a rest upside down with its oversized wheels pointing toward the sky.

Officials said the driver wasn't hurt but had to flee the scene to escape angry spectators.

The 200-mile race is part of a series held in Soggy Dry Lake Bed near the city of Lucerne Valley in the Mojave Desert, 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

Tens of thousands of people attend the California 200, in which a variety of off-road vehicles take jumps and other obstacles and reach speeds up to 100 mph on the 50-mile off-road course. The race had been scheduled to last through the night.

The crowd was standing within 10 feet of the track with no guard rails separating them from the speeding vehicles.

"There were no barriers at all," Jeff Talbott, inland division chief for the California Highway Patrol, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

He said that the driver, who wasn't named, was forced to run from the scene when the crowd grew unruly and some began throwing rocks at him. It was not clear why he lost control of the truck.

The CHP does not normally investigate crashes at organized races, but took the lead on this probe because of its scope and had set up a command center at the starting line of the race.

The federal Bureau of Land Management was assisting in the investigation.

The event was sponsored by the South El Monte-based Mojave Desert Racing. No one picked up the phone at a number listed on the group's website early Sunday, and its message mailbox was full.

The crash was the latest in a series of race accidents that have proved deadly to spectators.

A car plowed into a crowd that had gathered to watch an illegal drag race on a suburban road in Accokeek, Maryland, in February 2008, killing eight people and injuring five. The two racers were charged with vehicular manslaughter. Darren Bullock, 22, was sentenced to 15 years in prison; Tavon Taylor, 20, is awaiting trial.

In Chandler, Ariz., in February, a female spectator was killed by a tire that flew off a crashing dragster at Chandler's Firebird International Raceway for the NHRA Arizona Nationals.

In Selmer, Tennessee, a dragster went out of control and smashed into spectators during a fundraising festival in June 2007, killing six people and injuring 22. Driver Troy Critchley, 38, was convicted of misdemeanor reckless assault charges and sentenced to 18 months probation. [/quote]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100815/ap_ ... ash_deaths

A report I saw on the news this morning had an interview with one of the spectators...

He said that there were no rules at all regarding where people could stand, so everybody would crowd as close as they could to the track....

I really don't know who's stupider here...

The spectators, who are so stupid that they think it's a good idea to stand right next to a course where "a variety of off-road vehicles take jumps and other obstacles and reach speeds up to 100 mph...."

Or the event organizers, who were so stupid that they didn't realize that allowing this was a bad idea....

I'd say it's pretty much a coin toss....

[dales]

Darwin?



is this board FUBAR?

[Rick]

You posted that reply on Soapbox...

Link


Edited to add link.

[Aard Vark]

My post isn't here either.

And I even use my best writing to!

[Rick]

My post isn't here either.

And I even use my best writing to!

I been told it's my fault but I can't find um anywhere...

[loCAtek]

Your replies aren't saved as 'drafts'?

[Rick]

Nope.

I guess they go to post twilight zone...

[dales]

You posted that reply on Soapbox...

Link


Edited to add link.

i'm such a dope

[Rick]

At least we can find yours...

[loCAtek]

Chingo le ...!

[Aard Vark]

The reader's digest version of my post.

In every other country that runs rally races they put up a tape line for safty and have markers for the cars to follow. The distance between track and spectators is about 3 m (9 feet) if you go parst the tape you can get hurt but getting hurt or dead is all part of watching rallies.

I have seen a vidio of a photografer who was hit by a car going over 100Km/h. The driver doesn't stop even with the cammera still hanging off the spoiler. After his release from hospital he was so happy to meet the driver that near killed him and get his cammera (what was left of it) back.

Being as close to the track is to get the best view but you do run a chance of getting run down.

I still haven't worked out how to put vids on here Sorry
And I didn't use my best this time in case this one doesn't work

[dales]

Build a fence where the jumps occur to keep the Neanderthals back.

[Crackpot]

copycat

[dales]

I don't recall you using the word "Neanderthal" in your post.

[Lord Jim]

getting hurt or dead is all part of watching rallies.

Gee now that certainly sounds appealing....

Maybe it's just me, but personally I tend to favor past times that carry a fairly low probability of becoming hurt or dead....I guess I'm just funny that way...hurt and dead are generally pretty much on my short list of things to try to avoid....

[rubato]

The reader's digest version of my post.

In every other country that runs rally races they put up a tape line for safty and have markers for the cars to follow. The distance between track and spectators is about 3 m (9 feet) if you go parst the tape you can get hurt but getting hurt or dead is all part of watching rallies.... "

9 feet being the 'magic safety zone' which stops all cars traveling > 70mph .

yrs,
rubato

[dales]

give that man a cigar!

[Aard Vark]

I do know the organisers of the German Rally put the crowd a lot ferther back and behind wire fences and bolards.
The next year only half the croud turned up to watch and thry lost a heap in international tourism.

Now it is back to how it was. People want the thrill of getting up close and dangerous. If they get hurt they that is part of the excitment.

This has nothing to do with distance this is the croud wanting excitment and getting hurt. Don't you think it is strange if a car crashes and the driver is taken away in an ambulance everyone chears and watches and rewatches the crash without a second throght for the man in the helmet?
Now we have the same croud getting upset about getting hurt and what I find the most discusting part of the story They started lobbing rocks and stones at the driver.

So as I read it It is ok for a driver to get hurt in a race but not the spectaters that move as close as possible to the action.

[loCAtek]

Good points, add a sign at the ticket booth that says;

'Attend at your own risk! Management not responsible for lost or stolen lives.'


Two Drink minimum.

[Miles]

Two Drink minimum.

Bingo, Cali.............