Major accident in GT support race

In those pictures it looks like there was a fire extinguisher thrown out of the car?? Surely that should be secured inside the car with a serious amount of over engineering
 
that's horrible :(

looking at the start of the first clip, that's not the first car to do that - there are near identical skid marks already down.

hope he pulls through.
 
I would have thought that the car is meant to break up easily like that to dissipate the energy from the crash.

The driver hanging out of the car is a different story and obviously needs looking into, could have quite easily been chopped in half had the car gone on to hit another barrier/car.
 
That is shocking. Lambo's are not safe cars then I take it...

What the **** happened to his 6 point harness? That fail too?

A 90mph impact for a FIA racing series should result in no flames nor a seatbelt failure...
 
NathanE said:
What the **** happened to his 6 point harness? That fail too?

A 90mph impact for a FIA racing series should result in no flames nor a seatbelt failure...
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That was exactly what I said... The seat looks to be secured in the cell still. The harnesses must have broken? Improperly fastened perhaps? Had that car been involved in any other contact/accidents before this one?

Perhaps some pre-existing damage made this look a lot worse than it should have been...
 
it looks like it hit the barrier at the worst possible place, there is a way through there to the track no? (can see debris flung through the gap) So it just the car up as it hit it, a metre or so further and it'd have bounced/skimmed the armco?
 
So many things wrong with this, those cars are deadly as anyone with any insight would tell you and the way the marshals failed to act was shocking and the FIA needs an serious look into the quality standards at this circuit, simply not acceptable.
 
those cars are deadly as anyone with any insight would tell you
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can you elaborate?

edit;

some of the comments from the clip report that he's in a serious but no longer critical condition in an induced coma, with burns to his legs which are both broken and a fracture to his shoulder
 
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That's what you get for racing an expensive Audi :rolleyes:

Being rather more serious for a second or several - someone needs to take a good look at the safety of those cars in that type of incident. There is no way it should have a) completely destroyed the front clip and taken a good chunk of the cabin with it, b) sent him most of the way overboard as it totalled itself, and c) burst into flames with quite the level of enthusiasm that it did. And what the hell were the marshals up to?

So many things that are just plain wrong in that incident. Yes, motorsport is dangerous. But by the looks of that video, they're stacking the deck against the drivers in that series....
 
leave the marshals alone

Firstly, what type of training or experience do any of you have to qualify you on commenting on how this incident was handled? I’ve worked as a marshal for over 6 years including a year or so in pit lane and I cannot see why the marshals are being so heavily criticised.

The first rule of handling any incident, no matter how big or small, is look after yourself before anyone else. Secondly, look after your fellow marshals. Third, the driver and finally those expensive metal bits that just visited your sector. In a fire that size, as hard as it might be to do, under no circumstances should anyone be going gung-ho in to the car and be a hero to drag a driver out. One casualty is bad enough without adding to them by some ill-considered rash decision to put your own life at risk.

The AMR guy should be both applauded for his sterling efforts and reprimanded for his stupidity. Anyone having been to a fire that size would known how hot it would have felt from the pit wall let alone the car itself. I’d be amazed if he didn’t sustain injuries himself, but what good would he have been had he not managed to drag the driver clear so quickly? I dread to think how bad his injuries could have been, at least the driver has nomex to help him survive at least a short time in such a fire.

The entire car was covered in flame, including spilt fuel on the circuit that would have hindered getting to the car in the first place. They probably didn’t even know which end of the car the driver was in following the collision so I don’t blame them one minute for trying to put the fire on the car out to start with. Once you can see what you are doing you can have a better chance of getting the driver out. The driver could have been trapped, so putting the whole car out until you at least know where the driver is and making it safe has to be the first priority.

It seemed most of the extinguishers were AFFF (aqueous film forming foam) which can put a fire that big out, but only when a lot is deployed. Powder would have knocked the fire down quicker with just the hand held bottles. Not sure why they didn’t have any powder bottles, might be the circuit doesn’t use them or they simply were not the 1st to hand. Either way they used what they had available and did a good job until backup arrived. Getting thru barriers like that, with various bottles and protective equipment on, is not easy. Likewise you wouldn’t expect people to jump the barrier until the racing had been neutralised – again looking after your safety before trying to help the unfortunate driver.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with this post, but all I ask is that if you feel so strongly against these views then please feel free to volunteer as a marshal so you can experience first hand what its really like to be on the front line. Its not as clear cut and easy as you might think…

http://www.marshals.co.uk/
 
Hepatic said:
Firstly, what type of training or experience do any of you have to qualify you on commenting on how this incident was handled? I’ve worked as a marshal for over 6 years including a year or so in pit lane and I cannot see why the marshals are being so heavily criticised.

The first rule of handling any incident, no matter how big or small, is look after yourself before anyone else. Secondly, look after your fellow marshals. Third, the driver and finally those expensive metal bits that just visited your sector. In a fire that size, as hard as it might be to do, under no circumstances should anyone be going gung-ho in to the car and be a hero to drag a driver out. One casualty is bad enough without adding to them by some ill-considered rash decision to put your own life at risk.

The AMR guy should be both applauded for his sterling efforts and reprimanded for his stupidity. Anyone having been to a fire that size would known how hot it would have felt from the pit wall let alone the car itself. I’d be amazed if he didn’t sustain injuries himself, but what good would he have been had he not managed to drag the driver clear so quickly? I dread to think how bad his injuries could have been, at least the driver has nomex to help him survive at least a short time in such a fire.

The entire car was covered in flame, including spilt fuel on the circuit that would have hindered getting to the car in the first place. They probably didn’t even know which end of the car the driver was in following the collision so I don’t blame them one minute for trying to put the fire on the car out to start with. Once you can see what you are doing you can have a better chance of getting the driver out. The driver could have been trapped, so putting the whole car out until you at least know where the driver is and making it safe has to be the first priority.

It seemed most of the extinguishers were AFFF (aqueous film forming foam) which can put a fire that big out, but only when a lot is deployed. Powder would have knocked the fire down quicker with just the hand held bottles. Not sure why they didn’t have any powder bottles, might be the circuit doesn’t use them or they simply were not the 1st to hand. Either way they used what they had available and did a good job until backup arrived. Getting thru barriers like that, with various bottles and protective equipment on, is not easy. Likewise you wouldn’t expect people to jump the barrier until the racing had been neutralised – again looking after your safety before trying to help the unfortunate driver.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with this post, but all I ask is that if you feel so strongly against these views then please feel free to volunteer as a marshal so you can experience first hand what its really like to be on the front line. Its not as clear cut and easy as you might think…

http://www.marshals.co.uk/
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Good post. I do think they are being too heavily criticized there, however, common sense would dictate, when the fire isn't going out within seconds get the driver out of the car or use the extinguisher on him. They must have see him literally burning to death? Poor guy. Occasionally an incident like this occurs and the usual reaction in this day and age, is to over react and force a big safety enquiry due to a one off freak accident. However:

1: That car did seem to disintegrate too easily.
2: That barrier could be straight all down there and not angled on the exit.
3: It lit up like a bonfire dowsed in petrol.
4: The protective driver cell section did not stop him flapping about outside the car.
 
I think at the end of the day, the car probably should never have ended up in the state that it did, hitting an unprotected wall or not. That's by far the bigger issue.
 
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