Tarhog Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19267840/ Hard to believe the idiots who planned this thing never considered the vehicle could crash. Sad, and incredibly stupid. Hope someone ends up paying those 6 families (assuming no one else dies) every cent they have for the rest of their lives. And that won't be enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boysetsfire Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 It's amazing you would have a drag racing event with spectators being so vulnerable and so close to the actual track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 Now, let's face it here. Stupidity was a team effort, here. Guys, who was dumber? The folks who planned it, the driver, or the idiots who were standing there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desioreo87 Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 Now, let's face it here. Stupidity was a team effort, here. Guys, who was dumber? The folks who planned it, the driver, or the idiots who were standing there? All of the above. It was a tragic accident but I am not gonna feel sorry for people are standing not 5 feet from a car going that fast. Its just unfortunate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarhog Posted June 17, 2007 Author Share Posted June 17, 2007 Now, let's face it here. Stupidity was a team effort, here. Guys, who was dumber? The folks who planned it, the driver, or the idiots who were standing there? I agreed - but I hope you're not implying theres no culpability on the event sponsors? Theres a big difference between showing up somewhere and not imagining the worst, and those who are responsible for an event who don't take those risks into consideration (or worse, consider them, but do nothing). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinsngibbs4life Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 Now, let's face it here. Stupidity was a team effort, here. Guys, who was dumber? The folks who planned it, the driver, or the idiots who were standing there? how would the driver be at fault? He was just racing the car in the manner that was supposed to happen. Have you never seen one of these cars crash before? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 how would the driver be at fault? Um, he stood at one end of the track, looked downrange, and saw 1,000 people standing a couple of feet from his "line", with no barrier between him and them. And he raced anyway. You want to claim he's blameless? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarhog Posted June 17, 2007 Author Share Posted June 17, 2007 Um, he stood at one end of the track, looked downrange, and saw 1,000 people standing a couple of feet from his "line", with no barrier between him and them. And he raced anyway. You want to claim he's blameless? You forgot the part about flooring it, spinning his wheels like a madman, and losing control. Idiot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teller Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 This wasn't a race at a track. It was basically a parade on a city street. So of course you're going to have people in close proximity. Absolutely idiotic of the driver to do that. Anyone who's ever driven a car hard, or done a burnout knows that this could have happened. I hadn't seen the ages before either. The victims were all essentially kids. Makes me sick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IONTOP Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 Um, he stood at one end of the track, looked downrange, and saw 1,000 people standing a couple of feet from his "line", with no barrier between him and them. And he raced anyway. You want to claim he's blameless? I wouldn't consider it "racing" he was showing off.. and when you do a burnout there is a chance, albiet a small one, that you can pop a tire or suddenly catch traction and go shooting off into the neveryonder.... Stupid thing to do, I don't think it was the kids fault for standing so close to the road, it's a freaking parade... That's what people do... It's either the driver's fault for not controlling the car or not letting off when he should have. Or it's the event's fault for not putting guidelines in about what is acceptable and what is not.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCS Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 As I am fond of saying, people are idiots until proven otherwise. Very tragic indeed here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DjTj Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19267840/Hard to believe the idiots who planned this thing never considered the vehicle could crash. Sad, and incredibly stupid. Hope someone ends up paying those 6 families (assuming no one else dies) every cent they have for the rest of their lives. And that won't be enough. This has been all over the news here, and I watched the first reports that came on after the US Open yesterday.I guess all the facts are still coming out, but what's sad is that the event was started almost 20 years ago to raise money for children's hospitals, so the likely outcome of any lawsuits is that it will shut down a charity that has raised $2 million for disabled children. I guess maybe they've been doing it for so long that they just got careless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edgun88 Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 And the Darwin award goes to... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swisha Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 Stupid thing to do, I don't think it was the kids fault for standing so close to the road, it's a freaking parade... That's what people do... I know for sure I wouldn't stand that close to a car going 100 mph (?). I'm even worried when I have to pull over on the highway. I agree, though, that sometimes excitement makes people ignore the danger of the situation. But if you're going to call the driver stupid here, the bystanders have to be called stupid also to a certain extent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edgun88 Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 I know for sure I wouldn't stand that close to a car going 100 mph. Exactly the point of my last post. Thats a death wish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DjTj Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 There's a home video of the accident on local TV now: http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6668755 From what I've read it seems like it was really just a parade of cars rather than a race. I'm not sure if the drag racer was even supposed to speed down the street like that rather than just reve its tires. It looks like there was a guardrail where the car started but not further down the road where the crash happenned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ldysknzfn1 Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 I saw this on the news last nite and the first thing I said to my hubby was..."can u believe they would do that w/the ppl standing there like that w/no barrier between them and the car?"..he said...I don't understand that at all...They reported it as a "stunt" and the driver lost control. Very tragic indeed. Hope someone gets it up the wazoo for that. Idiot doesn't begin to describe this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 OK, based on some of the posters here (assuming they're correct), I'm downgrading my stupidity rating on the crowd. I thought this was an actual drag race. If it's simply part of a parade, that's different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky21 Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 I'm gonna call stupidity on the driver on this one. He's going to have to live with what he's done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corcaigh Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 The driver takes the blame. Personally, I take a step back from the parade route when the Shriners speed by in their little cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinnedAussie Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 News filtering through down here (the driver in question is an Aussie) is that the local police chief was in charge of crowd control, and asked everyone to move back. Once the burn-out started, everyone then surged forward for a better look. Also, for those who didn't actually read the article linked to above; The statement also says Selmer police went down the length of the highway before the burnout and told the crowd to move back.Rodger Pitchford, who suffered a broken right leg, chipped vertebrae and bruises in the crash, confirmed that account. Pitchford, 18, said two police cars drove down the parade route and advised spectators to move farther back from the road. People heeded the warning initially, then moved back in when the car was coming to get a better look, he said. “It was our choice to stand there,” he said. “We shouldn’t have been that close. If we had stayed back, I don’t think that many people would have been injured because we would have had time to move out of the way.” An earlier comment in the article stated; Four high-powered dragsters, including one driven by pro drag racer Troy Critchley, were scheduled for the show’s popular “burnout exhibition” in which drivers spin their tires to make them heat up and smoke. Hundreds of spectators, unprotected by guard rails, lined both sides of a three-lane highway to watch the show. So, it wasn't as if the burn-out was done by a driver who was showing off - burn-outs were actually scheduled as part of the event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 News filtering through down here (the driver in question is an Aussie) is that the local police chief was in charge of crowd control, and asked everyone to move back. Once the burn-out started, everyone then surged forward for a better look. I highly doubt that if the crowd was standing 10 feet back the accident would have been avoided. What a tragedy. Those poor families... out for a fun parade and they get killed by stupidity. Just sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DjTj Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 News filtering through down here (the driver in question is an Aussie) is that the local police chief was in charge of crowd control, and asked everyone to move back. Once the burn-out started, everyone then surged forward for a better look.If you watch the video of the accident, you see that this is not true ... it happenned too fast for anyone to surge forward:http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6668755 Also, you'll see that most of the people were behind a guardrail for at least the first 50 feet or so. From my extensive youtube research of burnouts, my conclusion is that the driver (or the car) screwed up, because I don't think the car was supposed to travel that far or that fast. If there were earlier burnouts in that parade, certainly nobody would have expected a car to come speeding down the road - there's even a guy (presumably someone who is with the event organizers) standing in the middle of the street when this happens, so I seriously doubt that flying down the road at high speed was part of the plan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinnedAussie Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Here's an idea. Go to Cars For Kids and see how many pics of vehicles doing burn-outs are displayed. There is even one on the banner. Until all the details have been released, along with the findings of the investigation, anyone who wasn't there does not have the right to point the blame finger at anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DjTj Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Here's an idea.Go to Cars For Kids and see how many pics of vehicles doing burn-outs are displayed. There is even one on the banner. Until all the details have been released, along with the findings of the investigation, anyone who wasn't there does not have the right to point the blame finger at anyone. Well my point was that from what I have seen, a "burn-out" is when a car spins its tires and does not move very far or very fast ... what happenned in Selmer didn't look like a burn-out at all - it looked like an accident. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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