Mini Challenge Crash at QLD Raceway - Spectator Safety

[Chatters]

***Please be warned, this video may distress some viewers***

I think the cause for this accident has to be because a track like Ipswich, as well as Winton, is (relatively) flat. Other tracks the spectators are elevated higher then the track and I think the closest we have seen to something else like this happened was Simon Wills at Sandown, and one of the Mini's a couple of years later.

Is there anything that could have, should have, or can be done to prevent this from happening in the future?

[Pro Racer]

well it would be 1 in a million that the car went in like that and hence got flung into the crowd. probably most you could do is the American oval style safety fences and people still get hurt. IMO while safety is paramount there is minimal that can be done and unlikely something like that would happen again and nor do we want it too.

motorsport is dangerous not only for the driver's and teams but as this case proves spectators in some cases and we are lucky that injuries were only to a few and nothing worse.

[redesp]

Originally Posted by Pro Racer

well it would be 1 in a million that the car went in like that and hence got flung into the crowd.

motorsport is dangerous not only for the driver's and teams but as this case proves spectators in some cases and we are lucky that injuries were only to a few and nothing worse.

There's been several instances od repeated "one in a million" crashes though.
Will Power (i think) over the wall and Calder... then followed by lowndes the next day..
There was that Porche that Tripped at the ripple strip at QR a couple of years ago.. then followed by Jason Richards (with some help from paul morris).

As for the spectators getting hit.... well I bet they sat in that pariticular spot in the hope that a car would plough off into the dirt and/ or barrier in front of them... that's how I pick my seat at any track.. gotta maximise the opportunity to see a good "off"
Those guys definatly got good value for money..

[Bevan-L]

Originally Posted by redesp

There's been several instances od repeated "one in a million" crashes though.
Will Power (i think) over the wall and Calder... then followed by lowndes the next day..
There was that Porche that Tripped at the ripple strip at QR a couple of years ago.. then followed by Jason Richards (with some help from paul morris).

As for the spectators getting hit.... well I bet they sat in that pariticular spot in the hope that a car would plough off into the dirt and/ or barrier in front of them... that's how I pick my seat at any track.. gotta maximise the opportunity to see a good "off"
Those guys definatly got good value for money..

Calder isnt exactly "safe" to begin with.... even when it was used in the 90's... Theres been a few big ones coming into T1 there.

[fomoco]

There will be a lot of conjecture about this incident. I was there. I wont go into all the details, suffice to say, the reports were handed to race control, footage, and investigation, they will decide what is required to avoid this again. Also, another mini twice left the track and struck the barrier at turn six on friday and agian on sunday. So, with the reports, footage, mechanical inspection of the cars, they should come up with an appropiate resulution.

The best news is the two spectators who received injuries are ok, physically,but , Like the rest of us there, it still in our heads.

[PVDA]

Originally Posted by redesp

Will Power (i think) over the wall and Calder... then followed by lowndes the next day..

Justin Cotter actually.

Originally Posted by Axeman444

i'm no engineer, and maybe the Astrophysicists on here can correct me if wrong, but i think you would find that fencing works when cars are impacting along the fence, not directly into it

The fence in question was made from chain mesh so is only designed to stop people not cars.

To get to the fence the car had to get through a large gravel trap and past the concrete wall.

[Axeman444]

Originally Posted by PVDA

The fence in question was made from chain mesh so is only designed to stop people not cars.

To get to the fence the car had to get through a large gravel trap and past the concrete wall.

sorry PVDA i meant the type of fencing in the states that i was quoting someone else mentioning. wasn't referring to the QR fence

[grelley]

I am staggered to see the extremely poor quality fencing that they are able to get away with, and even more so when you consider they are running V8 S/cars on the same track. That fencing would not be allowable on a track in New Zealand. The organisers are very lucky with the limited amount of injurys (as are the spectators).

[marcus]

safer barriers would not have helped in this particular crash as the car cleared the barriers. I guess the only thing is high catch fencing like on the US ovals but then again the mini was going straight at the "hypothetical" fence and probably would have went straight through it.

A freak accident for sure and I wish the injured poeple a speedy recovery

[smokinJ]

"said a man, 60, suffered head lacerations and a suspected fractured shoulder, a man, 59, had facial cuts and a man, 22, believed to be Magro, had neck pain."

from the tiser

[STEALTHY]

Marcus, i rekon those high catch fences would be fine to stop a car in this instance. The fence it went over was just a standard chainlink fence by the looks.

Although, i'm not sure it would be needed all the way around the track. So many circuits are ruined by freak accidents that never have a repeat (on the flip side, i'm a firm believer that if one car can get there, any car can get there).

[samoaair707]

I was there today and must say I felt sick being there and watching that happen.I tell you what,bet someone was looking over everyones shoulder on that mound today.

[TSR]

Going to motorsport event for over 30 years, on the back of the ticket it states in bold....... MOTORSPORT IS A DANGEROUS SPORT, AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Wording might have changed over the years.

[bortall]

Motorsport is dangerous and that accidents causing harm can and do happen and may happen to you.

Amongst other conditions of entry

[Purist]

Of course, just because you look before crossing doesn't mean someone won't run the red. My brother lost a friend back in middle school when that happened.

You take some basic, reasonable precautions, but don't have any illusions about there being guarantees on a lot of these things in life.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by Purist

Of course, just because you look before crossing doesn't mean someone won't run the red. My brother lost a friend back in middle school when that happened.

You take some basic, reasonable precautions, but don't have any illusions about there being guarantees on a lot of these things in life.

Life is not free of danger, that's perfectly true. Problems emerge however, when 'reasonable precautions' to protect spectator safety haven't been taken. As an example, if there was inadequate spectator fencing present at that corner because more effective fencing would have been too expensive to install.

Let's be thankful that nobody was seriously injured here and if any lessons need to be learned, let's take them on board and look from the perspective that a high price didn't need to be paid for them... this time.

[STEALTHY]

Originally Posted by davyboy

Life is not free of danger, that's perfectly true. Problems emerge however, when 'reasonable precautions' to protect spectator safety haven't been taken. As an example, if there was inadequate spectator fencing present at that corner because more effective fencing would have been too expensive to install.

Let's be thankful that nobody was seriously injured here and if any lessons need to be learned, let's take them on board and look from the perspective that a high price didn't need to be paid for them... this time.

Its a freak accident and nothing more. Theres no need to ruin tracks (although i'll be quite happy to remove this ****ty track from the V8s calendar). Had the car bounced 3mm to a different side on the first roll, it would have come to rest on the tyre wall.....and this wouldn't even be a discussion.

People need to take responsibility for their actions. You attended a motorsport event, and its dangerous. Everything was done to try and prevent such things from happening, but cars can STILL clear high catch fencing, so it would be pointless ruining tracks because of this incident.

[Gaz170]

Originally Posted by STEALTHY

People need to take responsibility for their actions. You attended a motorsport event, and its dangerous. Everything was done to try and prevent such things from happening, but cars can STILL clear high catch fencing, so it would be pointless ruining tracks because of this incident.

But promoters and track owners need to protect themselves from litigation. Now that its happened once, something will have to be done here to prevent it happening again. Not a knee-jerk reaction, but a solid thought-out solution.

[STEALTHY]

Originally Posted by Gaz170

But promoters and track owners need to protect themselves from litigation. Now that its happened once, something will have to be done here to prevent it happening again. Not a knee-jerk reaction, but a solid thought-out solution.

And whatever they do to change the track, a car can still make it over in freak circumstances. So its pointless.....the only way you can make it 100% safe for the fans is to have 100 feet high concrete all the way around the track. That'll make for great spectator base.....

[broadrun96]

I have to say the most surprising thing to me was the fence itself. Seemed really short and close to the gravel trap to be so lightweight. However, building fences to stop that kind of freak occurrence would end up with tracks everywhere looking like our oval here, and that's just no good for road courses. Also, I couldn't tell if he managed a weird bounce over the short tires wall of if it didn't extend that far. Have they made any knee-jerk reactions to a single event or has restraint and common sense managed to win out down under? I dread to think the press coverage and calls for the heads of the series/track owners here in the US.

[peckstar]

Trying to remember the last time a car rolled into the crowd at a street course. even though the crowd are often closer to the action.

Surely there is a reason for this

[smarm]

Originally Posted by peckstar

Trying to remember the last time a car rolled into the crowd at a street course. even though the crowd are often closer to the action.

Surely there is a reason for this

The mini basically accelerated once it was on it's roof, caught the gravel trap, then had a largish run off area to continue its flight, before going over a tyre wall and a fence whose primary purpose was to hold back the spectators.

Street circuits generally don't have the run off area, or the change in surface to cause the car to roll, and for it to get enough distance to get the vertical attitude AND have the horizontal speed. The

If a car rolls on a street circuit, then generally they'll have hit a hard, movable wall with a 90 degree face on it, which absorbs a huge amount of the energy, really minimising the forces that then continue to allow the car to keep rolling.

[STEALTHY]

Originally Posted by smarm

The mini basically accelerated once it was on it's roof, caught the gravel trap, then had a largish run off area to continue its flight, before going over a tyre wall and a fence whose primary purpose was to hold back the spectators.

WAT?

[bortall]

If they go down the catch fence route, hopefully only in selected places, at the end of straights usually, like the end of the back straight at Sandown, a place with a proven record.

[Rachel Richards]

whilst all the comments above point to the potential of the end outcome, maybe there is a need to contempate the root cause.

The driver, whilst reportedly having his first start in a Mini, is reported to be a speedway state champion, and F/Ford racer, and if you go to the 48 second mark of this footage SEE HERE i think the root cause might have just been established !!! (note to self, cars with mudguards still ride wheels)


Now I do agree that the incident was unusual, in that the car slid, and rolled so much (& travelled such a distance from point of impact) and that the hop-skip-jump over the fence was, to a degree unlikely to be predicted, but if we start to build/modify circuits to prevent every possible aspect of what could go wrong, the only people making money will be Readymix. (so they still exist?)
And the only spectators left with a decent view,will either be the corporates, or those that own helicopters, or scaffold companies

Beretta said in the news story "The Sport's Controlling Body has lauched a full Investigation".
I'm sure that we, as the motorsport public can clearly be reassured that the results of same will be publicly available, as will a comprehensive program of circuit re-inspections, with definitive safety improvments reccomended, and of course those reports will be published and made available on the CAM$ website.....



Sorry, I think I just heard a snifter of Brandy go crashing to the floor, somewhere in Malvern.






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