Tony Stewart HITS and kills Sprint Car Driver

ianh said:
I'm sure Stewart didn't mean to hit him deliberately and that it was an accident, maybe he thought he'd get close and give him a scare, but from the limited info in the video it does look like he drove very close to Ward when no other drivers did, they're all at the bottom of the track.

Of course if Ward wasn't a pillock it wouldn't have happened but it's a hell of a price to pay for a moment of anger induced finger waving.
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Pretty much what I'd go with from the grainy video.
 
I couldn't see this being deliberate in the slightest (I don't know much about the guy). There are probably so many factors to take in account from the drivers point of view such as being on a dirt track, not being in the most nimble of cars, limited view, totally unexpected circumstances and a 100 other things to think about if you get into the nitty gritty. That said he may not of done everything a perfectly to avoid a collision but that may be due to the above factors.

As from the grainy video you can't really tell much I mean the revving could have been due him trying to avoid him in time as it would probably of been better than braking in the 1-2 seconds notice he had on a dirt track with drift cars.

From my personal point of view the guy who was hit is at fault there is just no reason in the world why you should be in the middle of a race track. Maybe the incident could have been avoided better (very hard to tell from the video) but either way there is no reason he should have been in the track at all.

Either way all of this is sad incident brought on by pure idiocy that could have been completely avoided.
 
I for one second cannot believe that Stewart would hit Ward on purpose.

He would know that at that speed it would kill him and with a load of witnesses he wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

I believe that he's innocent and that Ward should have stayed in his car as they should do till they're told to leave.
 
Casdawer said:
I for one second cannot believe that Stewart would hit Ward on purpose.

He would know that at that speed it would kill him and with a load of witnesses he wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

I believe that he's innocent and that Ward should have stayed in his car as they should do till they're told to leave.
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I think, and hope that this sums it up perfectly.
 
Casdawer said:
I for one second cannot believe that Stewart would hit Ward on purpose.
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Nor do I, though I wouldn't put it past his obvious and historic temper issues to try and give the bloke a scare by getting close and having it all go wrong, whether by him misjudging the space or Ward moving into his path further, or just the car not responding how he intended.

If the police do indeed have on board video though as has been suggested, any movement towards Ward will be obvious and could land Stewart in extremely hot water.

For clarity, given the way this board operates, none of the above means I don't think Ward was a complete idiot for even being stood there in the first place. You can't get run over accidentally or intentionally if you aren't stood in the race track to start with.
 
Housey said:
A hot head can cost a life in motorsport, but usually it isn't from getting run over due to walking in front of the pack to remonstrate.
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Chances are that most of the field in ESS (http://empiresupersprints.com/ - the Sprint Car series that was racing that night) aren't pro drivers, and are funding the racing entirely out of their own pocket which may explain why Ward was particularly upset. Their rulebook does prohibit malicious confrontations, and sanctions include anything up to suspension from races.
 
Indy500 said:
Chances are that most of the field in ESS (http://empiresupersprints.com/ - the Sprint Car series that was racing that night) aren't pro drivers, and are funding the racing entirely out of their own pocket which may explain why Ward was particularly upset. Their rulebook does prohibit malicious confrontations, and sanctions include anything up to suspension from races.
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Like me then, but I would not have got out and run across the track shaking my fist if I'd been punted off.
 
Apparently the driver of the car directly ahead of Stewart said he only saw him at the last moment due to the top-mounted wing, so Stewart would have had even less time.

Added to that you've got a driver, irrespective of lighting effectiveness, in a dark suit and helmet, and perhaps another driver not even looking at him, but at his dials, or the crashed car, or anything else - someone in such colours would certainly not show in your peripheral vision.



Kenai said:
Nor do I, though I wouldn't put it past his obvious and historic temper issues to try and give the bloke a scare by getting close and having it all go wrong, whether by him misjudging the space or Ward moving into his path further, or just the car not responding how he intended.
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While I disagree with your passive-aggressive wording here, I agree.

Not even the most ardent Stewart hater could think he'd, even in a mad moment, endanger a fellow human deliberately, but there are a few reports he's attempted to cover a fellow competitor with mud before - but that's more a playful finger up than a malicious move. If that was the case it went horribly wrong and will sit with him for the rest of his days, but Ward Jr should never have been in a place that allowed it to go wrong either.



Kenai said:
If the police do indeed have on board video though as has been suggested, any movement towards Ward will be obvious and could land Stewart in extremely hot water.
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Haven't they already suggested/stated they weren't pursuing any criminal charges? Perhaps if the family lodge a complaint that might happen (of course I don't know the local law), but as things stand they seem content that no offense was committed.



All that said, with all due respect, the deceased was an utter, utter idiot for walking along, and indeed at one point darting towards, the racing line. The first car on the scene after he left his car looked to have missed him by mere centimetres. I won't say he deserved what he got for his actions, as nobody wants that, but it was a monumentally stupid thing to do. I've no idea why it's so common in American motorsport to remonstrate as vociferously as in such clear cases it's unbelievably stupid - in European-based racing, if a driver did what he did, or threw their helmet at a fellow competitor's car, they'd likely get an instant ban.



Some of the safety standards in motorsport are deeply worrying me at the moment. As recently as the Spa 24 Hours we had drivers staggering out of a car in the middle of the track at the top of Eau Rouge, and with double-waved yellows fellow competitors were blasting up at near full speed. Double-waved yellows mean "prepare to stop". While double-waved yellows don't apply on ovals (full course accounting for all yellows), in general the current attitude towards the safety of your peers is shocking.

I think it was the late 90s or early 00s when Jackie Stewart (though I'm not sure there's a bigger hypocrite than Stewart in this regard) stated that he felt the improvements made to driver safety was contributing towards drivers feeling too safe and they were beginning to feel invincible again. The last time that happened in top-line motorsport F1 lost two drivers in a single weekend, and we were staggeringly lucky there weren't more. Indeed, in 2000 and 2001 the families of two F1 volunteer marshals lost a loved one due to poor driver standards.
 
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Only just seen this. Horrible :(

Based on the video I can't see that there is much chance of a clear opinion. On those grounds it seems to me that it is much more likely to have been a terrible accident than anything deliberate.
 
leaskovski said:
Saw this in the news today whilst browsing Autosport... I expect Stewart will not be found guilty of anything malicious on this.
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Hard to judge his intent from what little there is in the public domain.

http://www.avvo.com/legal-guides/ugc/arrest-to-sentencing-in-new-york-state-courts---part-2

The standard of proof at a [New York] grand jury proceeding is significantly lower than it is at trial. At trial, the evidence of a defendant’s guilt of a crime must be proven “beyond a reasonable doubt," and the decision of the jury must be unanimous. At the grand jury stage, since ultimate guilt or innocence is not at issue, the prosecutor must simply convince 12 of the [23] grand jurors present that there is “reasonable cause to believe" that the defendant committed a crime. A grand jury can choose to indict an individual – meaning that they formally accuse him of a felony – or it can dismiss a case against a defendant altogether. The grand jury also has a variety of other powers that are less commonly utilized in cases where a defendant has already been arrested.
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The jury hasn't convened yet so we won't know anything new until then.
 
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