Safety Crew needs shooting....

[MAX_THRUST]

A small note about the race at California.

Jeff Gordon crashes, seems dazed, safety crew are in attendance. then JG head drops to the left and slightly forward onto his chest. The safety worker grabs JG visor, which is open and lifts his head up by the visor I believe to wake JG up as it looked like he lost it for a couple of seconds. AS it was lifted JG seemed to wake up again.

Sorry, but that track worker I hope has been pulled up on it, it was not only bloody stupid, but could have ended someones career.

I'm not being dramatic just observant.

Someone must know how to forward such info onto NASCAR so that training can be amened to prevent this from happening again. If you need to check someone is awake don't yank there helmet, talk to them. He may have been awake and lowered his net but it doesn't mean he is 100%. Thankfully he was.

NASCAR is meant to be the top of US motorsport, the track workers normally do great things, but one incident can ruin careers and reputations.

Rant over,

Respect!!!

[colinspooky]

Yep, bit more training about dangers of moving people with possible back and neck injuries would be good, but shooting the track worker may be a little harsh.

That said, had he actually done some lasting damage to Mr G, then shooting may well be an option in Vegas. Don't they prepare a few holes in the desert just in case someone does the wrong thing? Or have I just watched Casino too often.

:eek:

[RaceFanStan]

That was a terribly HARD hit into the inside wall for Jeff Gordon !!! http://www.motorsportforum.com/forums/images/icons/eek.gif
Watch the replay on nascar.com, you will see the transmission slide up the track after impact ...

IF Jeff Gordon's visor was down, the emergeny worker should not have moved it.
IF Jeff Gordon's visor was left down, he was clearly in some distress ... :s
However, WATCH the replay, Jeff Gordon's visor is UP while unbuckling to get out ...

http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/cup/03/04/jgordon.rhendrick.vegas.ap/index.html
Look for the paragraph :
Gordon's accident happened shortly after a restart with
five laps to go when Gordon made contact with Matt Kenseth,
sending both cars into a spin. Gordon's car smacked the inside wall (watch video).

Shoot the safety worker ???
NO WAY !!!
This appears to be only rumor as Jeff Gordon's visor is UP inside the car ! http://www.motorsportforum.com/forums/images/icons/tongue-anim.gif

[JovialJooles]

I think you have miss understood the post by MaxThrust. He stated in his post that Jeff's visor was up.

As marshals and I'm sure safety crews are the same, we are warned about moving the driver's head. What is completely unacceptable is if you watch the video, the person who moves Jeff's head isn't even looking at him when lifting the helmet.

If you watch, the worker looks in, puts his hand on Jeff's helmet whilst simultaneously turning away from Jeff, (his back is turned) and obviously talking to someone outside the car. It is his action of turning around that yanks Jeff's helmet.

What we don't have is the audio to see if Jeff is talking all the while; but given the track worker is standing up and facing the opposite way, he would have no way of knowing/hearing that.

On safety, let's face it NASCAR has been pretty cavalier about safety in the past. It was the death of Dale Earnhardt that focussed minds and made them do anything serious about it. Before Dale Earnhardt's death, driver safety was a team's responsibility, not NASCAR's.

[Haulin'AssAndTurnin Left]

i saw this as well and i thought it was an odd thing to do. the guys just been in a major crash, yanking his helmet might not be the smartest thing to do!!

[colinspooky]

Just moving on slightly on the safety of tracks. Remember the steel barriers they used to have around the top of banks in the old days. Replaced and rightly so.

NOW, look at places like Bristol. There is a sliding metal barrier at the exit of at least one of the turns. If a car hits that hard, it will bend and the car will continue forward into a solid block of wall. Or am I wrong and this has been changed?

Also aren't there similar gates in odd places on the exits of Talledega? Maybe others too.

And am I wrong in thinking on the back stretch of Gateway, there isn't even an outside wall at all along some of the length?

:eek:

[stereokarter]

The stars of NASCAR have left themselves vulnerable to the type of incident that Jeff Gordon was involved in at Las Vegas. Do they not have a Driver Safety Group? Do they not inspect the facility themselves in advance of testing & competing there each and every event? Does JG have to experience the "hardest hit ever" before action is taken?

These problems are long since evident. Even in the old days of F1 the drivers walked the track, not so much for safety but more so to find where the ruts and bumps were! That said, the Officials should be doing the same to identify any shortcomings that could potentially endanger a driver and or spectator.

Racing is dangerous, we know, but stupid omissions like at LV and other facilities have been callously ignored. Wake up...and I mean Drivers and Officials alike.

[MAX_THRUST]

Thank you pointing out the fact that someone missed my point.

I'm glad I raised this issue now. I didn't realise how poor the safety issues seem to be. After Greg Moores crash at California I would have thought they would have changed the wall that Jeff hit. Ok they tarmaced the grass area approaching the wall so cars don't fly. When I saw the hit I thought JG was in trouble, good to see the new cars are tough enough to protect the driver. With bits like the radiator dropping out shows the force of impact.

[cgs]

its not the first time na impact like this has occured recently. there was a busch race not so long ago there one of the drivers slid and turned round and impacted the wall side-on with the passenger side door. the entire car moved over and the body work was clearly dis-lodged. i thought after that accident that all other tracks would consider changing other similar walls.

(cant remeber who the driver was, or what track it was, but it was one that the cup series doesnt go to)

[blakebeatty]

I don't know why every single inch of wall at these tracks is not SAFER barrier. at LVMS, the object is not money.

[BobbyC]

Thank you pointing out the fact that someone missed my point.

I'm glad I raised this issue now. I didn't realise how poor the safety issues seem to be. After Greg Moores crash at California I would have thought they would have changed the wall that Jeff hit. Ok they tarmaced the grass area approaching the wall so cars don't fly. When I saw the hit I thought JG was in trouble, good to see the new cars are tough enough to protect the driver. With bits like the radiator dropping out shows the force of impact.

The impact was very bad, but those parts that flew out of the car, plus the new features on the COT, helped tremendously. The fortunate thing was how Gordon just needed the mandatory ambulance ride. In light of what happened in Adelaide a few weeks ago, we're fortunate that the use of these tubular space-frame cars and the COT's safety features worked well. If it was a monocoque, there would be no telling what would have happened. NASCAR learned its lesson on monocoques nearly 50 years ago after the 1960 Daytona 500.