crazy nascar wreck

[stevew]

Can't link to video from my phone, but there was a crazy wreck today at the nationwide race. Looks like a bunch of fans were hurt and luckily the fences caught two engines. I saw it live and im shocked if nobody died.

Huge wreck in today's NASCAR Nationwide race injures fans (with video) | Motor Sports | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

[Lathum]

The engine actually went through the fence and ended up on the walkway. ESPN reporting 17 hurt including 2 major, one in critical condition with a head injury. One tire flew into the crowd.

The scary thing was that they didn't show a replay in the 30 minutes of coverage following it happening.

One thing I will sya is every driver interviewed, especially Tony Stewart who won, showed amazing class. Not one member of Stewarts team were celebrating the victory, they were all showing concern for the fans involved

[EagleFan]

Crud, I work with someone that went to that and based on her description of her seats she would have been in that area. She hasn't posted anything on facebook in several hours.

[JPhillips]

Is it possible to fix all the fence damage by tomorrow?

[Ryan S]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Is it possible to fix all the fence damage by tomorrow?

I would not expect that to be a problem. Nascar would need to be prepared to repair a fence during a race stoppage, so they should easily be able to repair the area in 24 hours.

[Thomkal]

Yeah my brother, his wife, and one of his sons were there-they were sitting where most of the cars came to a rest at the end of that crash-and my nephew was down at the floor level there-but thankfully not hurt.

[IlliniCub]

I think Nascar has blocked some of them by now but there were some absolutely crazy videos on youtube of the crash taken by fans right by where one of the tires landed just unreal the amount of debris in the air. Didn't show anything graphic thankfully.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Lathum

The scary thing was that they didn't show a replay in the 30 minutes of coverage following it happening.

It didn't appear to be sloppy work as much as orchestrated. Even though it was apparent to everybody at the race track there were injuries in the crowd, ESPN's announcers clearly steered away from the topic and focused on the drivers and the results. I'm sure ESPN will eventually release a statement saying that they wanted to respect the privacy of the injured, but since when as any media outlet respected anyone's privacy? They were respecting their agreement with NASCAR.

Also disturbing that in the same breath, NASCAR pledged a thorough investigation of the accident but the race is on tomorrow. If they were concerned about driver safety and spectator safety, wouldn't they postpone this race until they know it's safe?

I'll admit I don't care for racing much but I have nothing against NASCAR. However, everyone know's that Daytona is perhaps the least safe racetrack on the circuit for everyone involved. The restrictor plates don't help, the racing is out of control and now we know the barricades don't protect the fans. It's a miracle no one died today ... and sadly with the injured spectators that still may happen.

[Lathum]

My point wasn't that it was sloppy, it was scary because the fact they didn't show it illustrated just how serious it was.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I was following the coverage on ESPN's Twitter feed throughout the incident (randomly clicked over there just a minute or so after it happened & stuck around).

They did a bang up job covering it from there and mentioned the decision not to show replay there as well. It is pretty much policy -- whether that's their own or in conjunction with NASCAR {shrug} -- and it's one that the fans in the peanut gallery seemed very comfortable with.

The situation did seem to be a pretty fluky thing. There's only two incidents anyone could recall involving engines coming completely loose, a Gordon one a few years back & then the Geoff Bodine truck incident back 10-12 years ago (I remember that one pretty well), difference being that neither of those happened to go toward the fence. The AP photographer caught a pretty good sequence of stills that seemed to start about the time the car went airborne & you can see how & when it started to come apart (all but the last bit, I still haven't seen where that takes place). The car goes up, spins and then for a bit actually travels perpendicular to the track along the fence, ala something out of Speed Racer. Looks like the fence acted like a cheese grater basically, and I suspect the last big hit was that gate (which looks like a terrible idea) right around where the fence came down.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Pretty good perspective piece from Ed Hinton about the history of accidents such as this. The point about how a similar incident in 1987 (which I remember) may very well have influenced today's crash is well made.

Daytona 500 - crashes that hurt or even kill fans have long history in auto racing - ESPN

[EagleFan]

Friend from work is okay. She said the wreck started to her left and the debris started just to her right.

Though she was upset at the reaction of some of the fans as they were pushing people aside to get over to where the injured were. Not to help but to take pictures.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Friend from work is okay. She said the wreck started to her left and the debris started just to her right.

Though she was upset at the reaction of some of the fans as they were pushing people aside to get over to where the injured were. Not to help but to take pictures.

The power of social media, gotta get it on twitter, fucking assholes.

Glad your friend is OK EF

[JonInMiddleGA]

Darned good pic I hadn't seen until now, answers my curiosity about how the back of the car got torn off. Looks like the 32 was hit in the rear by a car (31) that basically went underneath him an instant after the front was ripped to pieces by what appears to be the gate. Unless my eyes deceive me, that's the hood of the 32 across the windshield of the car in the middle of the three-wide.

[DanGarion]

Crazy shit, the tire was just feet from this guy...

[stevew]

Looks like Google reversed the takedown requests from NASCAR. I'd understand if someone was graphically injured, but seemed like an overreaction at the time.

[Ryan S]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

Also disturbing that in the same breath, NASCAR pledged a thorough investigation of the accident but the race is on tomorrow. If they were concerned about driver safety and spectator safety, wouldn't they postpone this race until they know it's safe?

Motor sports will never be safe. That is why every ticket to every motorsport event I have ever attended has a huge warning disclaimer about the dangers.

The fact that something like this has not happened before at Daytona despite the huge crashes that regularly occur proves that they are doing something right.

[Ryan S]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

They did a bang up job covering it from there and mentioned the decision not to show replay there as well. It is pretty much policy -- whether that's their own or in conjunction with NASCAR {shrug} -- and it's one that the fans in the peanut gallery seemed very comfortable with.

It seems like a policy across the board in motorsports. If you watch an F1 race, they usually won't show a replay after a serious accident if they think there is a chance of serious injury.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

Also disturbing that in the same breath, NASCAR pledged a thorough investigation of the accident but the race is on tomorrow. If they were concerned about driver safety and spectator safety, wouldn't they postpone this race until they know it's safe?

The chance of the same type of accident happening is so low there is no reason to postpone the race.

That's like saying if a player on the football field gets paralyzed why don't they cancel all the football games.

[DanGarion]

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Yikes. Lots of metal in that photo.

[DanGarion]

More pictures I found on Reddit this morning.

[Ryan S]

It's impressive just how much the catch fence stopped. Imagine what kind of damage an engine could do if it was not stopped by the fence.

[RendeR]

Originally Posted by Ryan S

Motor sports will never be safe. That is why every ticket to every motorsport event I have ever attended has a huge warning disclaimer about the dangers.

The fact that something like this has not happened before at Daytona despite the huge crashes that regularly occur proves that they are doing something right.

Actually this has happened in the past but its very very rare.