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- spriggig, on 07/19/2009, -1/+34Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTDiYS1NVW4 - bigthree, on 07/19/2009, -0/+29that is just some awful luck
- kanojo1969, on 07/20/2009, -0/+26There is a roll cage that sits right behind the driver's head, and is higher than the head. Obvously if it rolled over, the cage is supposed to take the hit, not the driver. So having a wheel flying through the air that misses the cage but hits the driver in the head is quite a feat. The guy was just desperately unlucky.
You can't regulate your way around an event that freakish.
On the other hand, I do recall a certain driver with the last name of Senna who was killed by a wheel to the head as well. - inactive, on 07/20/2009, -0/+17Wrong place at the wrong time. Somehow everything lined up perfectly (not in a good way). I remember after some of my swim races looking back and saying "if I took one less breath I could have had the hundredths I needed." One brake or acceleration earlier in the race would have probably saved his life. Crazy how the littlest things can sometimes make the biggest differences.
- kanojo1969, on 07/20/2009, -0/+12Having viewed the clip, well, the wheel bounces across the track and just lands directly on top of his head as he's driving past. Bizarre, a hundredth of a second either way and he would have been untouched.
- JellyBean473, on 07/20/2009, -0/+11I believe F1 requires a braided steel tether holding each wheel to the chassis, probably a smart thing for all open-wheel racecars...
- skullk, on 07/20/2009, -0/+10My thoughts go out to his family. He went out having a blast I'm sure. Doing something that he loved.
- PoliticalMan922, on 07/20/2009, -0/+10Well...That sucks a lot.
- TBombadil, on 07/20/2009, -1/+8terrible, but that's the risk you run.
- Minters, on 07/20/2009, -1/+8Ayrton Sennas death was a totally different kind of accident. From memory, his steering column failed him and he ran off the track into a retaining wall. When that happened, the wheel got pushed into the cockpit by the impact and fractured his skull. It was the wheel from his own car that killed him, not sombody elses.
On the other hand, you are correct. Freak accidents will occasionally happen in the world of motorsport. Some will be minor, some will cause serious injury. Unfortunately this incident was the latter of the two and I seriously doubt that anything more could have been done to protect the driver. - vaguilera, on 07/20/2009, -1/+7Reminds me of Senna... I was warching that race...
- AngryOx, on 07/20/2009, -0/+6That was the driver who crashed into the wall and had his tire come off.
- roebeet, on 07/20/2009, -0/+6Think of it this way - there was probably multiple times in your life where you made one of those quick decisions you don't even think about (stopping to tie your shoe, stopping to scratch an itch or check something on your cell, turning left instead of right). And, if you had made a different decision at the time, you could have eventually gone down a path that could have led to serious injury or death.
Such is life. - diggmeordie, on 07/20/2009, -0/+5How tragic. At least he died doing what he loved.
- Letitsleep, on 07/20/2009, -0/+5this is sad , i actually had a chance to meet him during the 12 hours of sebring this year. it hits just a little closer when you have met them before.
- kingofinternet, on 07/20/2009, -0/+4that is horrible horrible luck. at least his death was instantaneous and unforeseen.
- feliks2, on 07/20/2009, -1/+5Jet style canopies offer little in the way of maximum speed increase while adding rather significant weight to the car, so performance-wise its not feasible. There is also a strong safety concern with "a canopy like a fighter jet." In the event of a crash it becomes much more difficult to get the driver out, or for him to get out on his own. Its much more than an inconvenience, but a real hazard that could end many many more lives than it saves. You could point to closed-cockpit Le-Mans cars (or something similar), but those are required to have two doors, one on either side. These make it possible to get the driver out reasonably quickly in an emergency. Fitting something like this onto an F2 or F1 car (or something similar), would require such drastic changes to the cars' structure that they would basically cease to be what they are now. Something like taking a Mazda Miata and plopping a towable RV thing on top of it.
edit: also, as kanojo1969 mentioned, because of the roll cage the safety difference between closed and open canopies (on a car that was specifically designed with such canopies in mind) is negligible. - bduddy, on 07/20/2009, -0/+3I'm almost sure that F2, being a FIA series, also mandates those tethers. However, even steel is only so strong. The forces involved in a car crash during a race are pretty extreme...
- asgardshill, on 07/20/2009, -0/+3I can't see where even a HANS device like those used in NASCAR would have saved him. Blunt force trauma FTL.
- feliks2, on 07/20/2009, -0/+3F1 cars are much safer in a crash than Civics. You can see drivers flipping their cars at 100+ miles per hour, then smashing into walls upside down at similar speeds and racing again two weeks later.
- CaptainSoviet, on 07/20/2009, -0/+2The guy getting out was Jack Clarke, the initial guy to go off. Surtees' car was the blue and yellow one that went off at the next turn, the accelerator still pegged.
- bobertoq, on 07/20/2009, -0/+2Because that way if the car catches on fire they can get out quicker!
- RajputSmurf, on 07/20/2009, -0/+2Hard to even imagine the odds against that happening. Our condolences to the Surtees family.
- roebeet, on 07/20/2009, -0/+2Last time I checked, everyone eventually dies. That includes celebrities.
- pstroll, on 07/20/2009, -1/+3Are the wheels safety-cabled in F2? Doesn't look like it from the footage.
- WRXFiles, on 07/20/2009, -0/+2No it isn't
- DaviDTC, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1That was the driver that crashed whose wheel flew off and hit the kid in the head. I thought the same thing too.
- damawa42, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1Yes, they are. Same spec as F1.
- DivineMonkey, on 07/20/2009, -1/+2The roll bar would not protect against this kind of accident. It protects against, guess.....Rolls! And Senna got a piece of suspension through the visor which was what killed him.
- damawa42, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1Which therefore makes the freakishness and the cause of death in this case probably exactly the same, which is the point that was being made.
- mavrick45, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1Horrible, just horrible.
Cut down in the prime of his youth. - damawa42, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1It *would* be surprising if it didn't have the same safety standards, but it does.
The cars are even designed by Williams, an F1 team.
F2 safety specs = F1 safety specs. - PFrocker, on 07/21/2009, -0/+1The F2 series meets the 2005 FIA safety regulations.
- ScaryUK, on 07/21/2009, -0/+1F1 and F2 cars have wheel tethers that stop the wheel from flying off.. you can see one in action on Surtee's car in the video after he crashes. For some reason the one on the other car failed
- nbcaffeine, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1Agreed. Feeder series=less sponsorships=less money for safety.
- strangewill, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1"his steering column failed"
That's kind of open for speculation, the corner itself was known as a problematic one due to construction in the first place, and they changed the track layout shortly after. - radar83, on 07/23/2009, -0/+1F1 and F2 and all open wheel motor racing events have the same safety requirements including IRL all cars designed are to follow the latest safety specifications from the FIA which is the governing world body over all motor racing events too sujest one car is much safer than another car is ridiculous. each car has to undergo vigorous crash testing and safety checks. Henry was wearing a Hans device as it is a requirement of all motor racing drivers to wear them. The cars are also required to have wheel tethers that reduce the frequency of loose wheels but as we know they are not fail proof nothing in life is or can be. Everyone that sets foot in a race car knows these risks thats what makes them so brave to do it week after week to be the fastest and the best. Henry is a hero in his own right. R.I.P Henry
- dsmx, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1Senna didn't crash because the steering column failed. He crashed because the car bottomed out going round the corner, when the suspension rebounded he lost steering ability as the front wheels went light and since he had no grip at the front of the car he just went straight on at the high speed corner into the concrete barrier.
- divinediva, on 07/20/2009, -3/+4It is surprising to see that the feeder series F2 doesn't have same safety standards as of F1.
- lostinseganet, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1I dunno maybe after a big orgie. You just keel over and die in the non painful explosion. wouldn't be so bad.
- nathanwk, on 07/20/2009, -1/+1i wondered this too.. confusing
- Tenlow, on 07/20/2009, -1/+1This kind of thing happens from time to time with open wheel cars. Usually they require some sort of "wheel not fall off" device be installed after something like this. You'd think they could figure it out after it happened the first time in a different race series and they'd apply it to theirs too, but apparently someone has to die before F2 will adopt IRL safety standards etc.
- DaviDTC, on 07/20/2009, -1/+1If there are those steel tethers, they suck big time. A wheel on both cars came off.
- aychseven, on 07/20/2009, -1/+1guess not. maybe they will after this.
- Brak710101, on 07/20/2009, -1/+2I always wondered why there wasn't a roll cage in front of the driver, too. Imagine sliding upside down and hitting a curb-like structure head on. Squish.
I'd say this was a freak accident, but it's not that far fetched to have it happen more often. - radioactive21, on 07/20/2009, -1/+1terrible luck. when its your time to go its your time to go, there are no good times.
- nepidae, on 07/20/2009, -1/+1he loved getting hit by tires?
- Jeff901, on 07/20/2009, -1/+1A canopy like a fighter jet
Unfortunately, it takes something like this to cause change -
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