pit lane safety

[marcus]

Today at my club day event we had a very nasty accident with a mother of a midget racer being collected by a kart.

this is something I and my pit buddy have raised with the club no more than 6 months ago but sadly today it came to a head.

before racing commenced there were some practice sessions and the midgets (or rookies Im not sure) were out on track.

sadly when they were flagged in to end the session one the the kids (a young girl) made an error of judgement on pit entry and came in way too fast, she realized this and jumped on the brakes to slow down but locked up and speared off the track.
At the same time a parent of another child was wandering across the grass on pit entry and got hit big time by the out of control kart.

All I heard was a bang (as the kart hit a fence) and turned around to see someone in the fence and a parent 6 foot off the ground and then SPLAT on the concrete.

The lady was OK , she had a nasty gash on the leg which St Johns Ambulance officers ( a silent thank you to them for their efforts at all our kart events) fixed up with no problems but the whole situation was very scary.

What I found annoying to myself and other onlookers was people getting mad and yelling at the young karter who simply made a mistake (she is no more than 10 or 11) they simply screamed at her "What the **** where you thinking !!!!" nevermind that the lady was walking in an area she shouldnt have been !!!!

I wont name names or blast anyone for what happened but it sure opened my eyes about pit lane safety even with kids racing.

The driver simply made a mistake by coming in too hot , it happens , I did it myself today in my practice run but thankfully no one was there but it made me think , I need to slow down more on returning to the pits.

I was horryfied (sp) at the response to what happened , the blame being laid squarely on the child , the poor girl was in tears , she was shocked she had just hit someone in her kart , its not what you expect to happen.

To her credit i think she raced during the day (in all honesty I was caught up in my own kart to take any notice)

but frankly what was going on , why was the officials of the meeting allowing people to be wandering around the track , this should not happen , stay behind barriers for gods sake , it doesnt matter that we are a little country meeting that no one gives a toss about , accidents can and do happen just as easially as they do at a F1 GP or Bathurst 1000 race, its the nature of the sport.

all I can say is if you are a parent , or flag marshall or an interested onlooker is if you do not need to be on track then stay the feck away from it , and if you are on track then stay behind the barriers or tyre walls or whatever the protection is because if I hit you with my kart be sure as all hell Im gonna get out and kick the crap out of ya for being on the track when you shouldnt be !!!!

driving is difficult enough without having to worry about people wandering across the track or even in pitlane.

thankfully todays events turned out OK , but it could have been much worse.

But tonight Im sure there is a young girl going to bed and reliving a moment of the day that she really didnt deserve to be reliving , I feel for her and her parents tonight (allthough her parents were doign alot of the yelling at her ) and i hope she puts it behind her and goes on to bigger and brighter things.


So if you are a parent or guardian or marshall or whatever stay behind the tyres PLEASE , I dont want to hit you as much as you dont want to be hit.