Not good. NOT GOOD AT ALL! 4 people dead.

Still developing...

 

"Mr. Critchley was taken to the Emergency Room and treated for injuries he sustained in the accident. He voluntarily submitted blood for testing to the Tennessee Highway Patrol and it was confirmed he had no alcohol or drugs in his system."

I guess we'll have to wait to see what's true and what isn't. It'd be nice if the "news" outlets would do the same thing. Seems like they report before they have the facts.
Larry T

 

There are.....there is a big show at the end of the summer here in Wa.....spectators along the main drag between adjoining towns will pour water for the passing cars, with signs saying "smoke 'em", etc.....the local police issue tickets, but it still happens....

 

Here's some math for thought..

My Cadillac:375-400 Hp/Disc Brakes/Peg Legged/Standstill burnout/0-60 in about 8 seconds/Quarter mile in about 13 or 14=Plenty of time to move if my brakes slip+Plus I know how to aviod shit, fuck my tranny and slam it into Park to prevent forward movement..

Pro Fuel Drag Car:1,200 to 2,300 HP/Lockups that can fail and have high stress due to HP/Posi Rear for racing (Lifts front end causing minimal traction on front for steering)/0-60 in 1.2 to 2 seconds/Quarter mile in 6 to low 8's plus needing a parachute to stop(Parachute could fail to open or many other thing preventing car to slow in time causing excessive stopping distance)=Disater on City streets or Highways therefore banned from being driven there

Also take in to consideration that most of the cars don't have a Park selection on thier gear box or a reverse...Malfunctions on drag cars are more prone to some kind of mechanical failure due to the high stress caused by the way they are built..Also,after each race,they go back to the pit and rebuild everything they possibly can to keep the car from falling apart on the track..


So,did the drag car need to be on the street??Fuck no,the promoter who is responsible for allowing this,the team,and the driver should be responsoble for negligent homicide and overall lack of common sense..

 

Stupid, sad and unnecessary.

 

Oldbobsign; I admire your restraint. Most people don't appreciate how quick a car can get going once the tires hook.

Here's my experience: I visited a small drag strip in Florida about 10-15 years ago, and people were literally standing IN the burnout boxes, drinking beer out of bottles, WHILE the cars were doing burnouts. Not just like a crew guy, this was the spectators! I was so shocked I couldn't believe it. NO WAY that would happen where I race.

Thought about it later and figured it was just a cultural/regional thing. Whatever.

No offense to southerners in gereral, or Floridians in particular. I'm just telling you what I saw.

 

My opinion is the driver wanted to put on a good show and the car got away from him. Maybe the promoter suggested it... "do it for the kids" who knows... we may never know.

 

You can’t make stupid illegal. I am not trying to be funny, but you just can’t. I think we would all agree that it is impossible to think about everything that could or will go wrong with any given situation. Who was being stupid in this case? I can’t say, I wasn’t there. But as with most “accidents” blame can usually be spread among several contributing factors.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o> </o>
There are many good points expressed in this thread. Common sense isn&#8217;t that common, but does that mean that everyone else should be held responsible for another being intellectually challenged? There is not enough personal responsibility in this country. Without knowing what really happened, (I wasn&#8217;t there) I am not going to make a judgement on what happened.
<o> </o>
I get nervous when people start saying the police should have protected them&#8230; One of the founding reasons for this country is personal freedom. With freedom comes responsibility not only for yourself but for those you may affect as well. The only way that the &#8220;government&#8221; can be held 100&#37; responsible for protecting us from everything that could happen is if YOU give them 100% control over your life.
<o> </o>
This is a terrible accident that I am sure none here would like to see repeated. But where do you draw the line? The age old question&#8230; I for one would like to decide for myself what events/hobbies etc I would like to be involved. But all we can do is try to promote the positive side of our hobby and try to educate ALL including our own about respecting our freedoms and the freedoms/safety of those around us.
<o> </o>
AND FOR FUCKS SAKE GET RID OF THE HELMET LAW. It is after all my squash right?

 

Yep, burnouts are stupid.

I guess I'm a pussy.

I'm OK with that.


This is a message board for traditional hot rods and customs.
I didn't know we had to be hoodlums, too. Some of us are comfortable being reasonable adults with cool toys.


(Ha -- I just looked at my signature line again. I guess I am kind of a hoodlum. Ignore me. )

 

I was trying to keep my previous response short and sweet because I usually ramble, but you are right. Burnouts at the right time in the right place are cool. Wrong place, wrong time...fucking stupid...period.

 

Grimm...
I understand where you are going with the mechanical failure thing, but there is alot more to it than the 40 minutes between rounds that we spend on teardown and repair...the race is mabey a 2 day event. the other 5 days of the week is spent maintaining the REST of the car. I assure you, a mechanical failure on a Pro Mod (or pretty much any dedicated race car with a full time team) is actually pretty rare. (in my personal experience, anyway.) and for the record, since you and several others have pointed towards a Line-Loc failure...when a line loc fails, it won't RELEASE, not disengage on it's own. it's a safety feature.

here's what I figure happened.

So, you either start you burnout in second and shift, or "top gear" (not usually...these things don't shift by themselves...a Lenco is a pretty simple animal. the lever simply tightens a band, which in turn engages good'ol turbo 400 clutches. no ninja magic involved.)
I figure this fella was having such a good time waving to his adoring crowd (Hey! he's done it 1000 times before according to his statement) he never shifted it into either gear...he was probably in first so he could move the car around.
started the burnout up in first and hey! this thing is movin pretty good! D'oh, I'm in first...better go ahead and shift it into second.

problem is, I don't think he had a real clear idea of just how fast he was moving...a crowd from here to there doesn't have any of the visual markers a strip does (center cones, where's the bandstands, 1/4 marker, etc,etc) so by the time he realized just how good he was really moving, it was all over.

not to mention, if the car had suffered a broken axle, Blowout, brake failure, evil garden gnome pinching brake lines, whatever, I'm pretty sure we would have heard about it by now. I assure you these guys reeeeally want to blame the car, but....

Never blame a dog for being a dog.
guns don't kill people, people kill people,
Christine was just a movie,
and if that car hadn't been backed out of the trailer that day, those kids would still be around.

 

Its a shame to see this type of thing happen. The worst thing of all in my opinion is that the driver should have assesed the risks involved and not done the burn out on a city street. I know he probably feels horrible for what has happened. Its just tragic.

 

Here is the story today.

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Aug14/0,4670,CarShowDeaths,00.html

 

I know that the driver is to blame and all for what happend but I am not sure all of it can be place on his shoulders. There is a couple quotes from the new article from Darla Griswell stating

"You have completely ruined our lives," Griswell said. "Does your mind ever think about anything else? Mine won't."

But how about thinking a head and not letting your children stand next to an unguarded street where it was taking place. This was not intended to happen and there were about a thousand people cheering him on before it took place. You assume the risk when going to any drag race really and I don't think this was much different.

Given, doing a burnout in a powerful dragster like that is stupid on a street but it's not like the crowd was not expecting him to do so. I just think the whole situation is terrible. Terrible for the victims and their families as well as the driver. He never intended any harm. A huge lack of judgment by him and so many others.

 

agreed completely

 

Hope for the best but EXPECT THE WORST...last night I was at a car show and some guy was standing there directing cars into place and I was thinking to myself if just one throttle sticks or a bluehair has a stroke then this guy is gonna be toast...momentary lapses in judgement can lead to an eternity of regret

 

Agreed.

A few years ago, there was a car show here in Seattle. Lots of people attended. One of the attendees (who also is/was a member on this board) decided it would be a good idea to do full pass burnouts in his extra low nailhead powered rat rod on the brick city street lined with people and cars. This guy buried the throttle and did the most hellacious burnout on a city street I have ever seen...
At the time, my daughter was almost 1, and was in a stroller. Although I love a good burnout from time to time, I did the only responsible thing any parent would/should do. I left.
I don't give a fuck what anyone says. No matter how cool, how bad ass, how much cheered on a nasty burnout is on a public street, if you give a fuck about your kids, you get them the hell out of there.

This also reminds me of a recent incident.

There was a hot rod shop open house here last month. Plenty of people attended, lots of kids too. One of the locals pulled into the lot adjacent to the shop in his prostreet Nova, and stalled the car. When he finally got it running again, he did a big hairy burnout, spraying one of the little kids in the face with rocks.
I'm glad to say, the owner of the shop came running, and told him to get his car out of there.

there's a place and a time for everything, and both parties carry blame in my opinion.

 

I attended a large 4th of July rod run-car show in Mass. several years ago. As part of the Saturday night entertainment, they blocked off a city street, lined it with cement Jersey walls in a U shape. Cars would pull up to the wall and light up the tires until they blew out. They even had grand stands set up along the sidewalks.

The crowd loved it, and to a certain point, I guess it was pretty safe. I always wondered what would happen if a chunk of sidewall went into the spectators?

 

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I read this whole thread...whew...the Don Henley song "Get Over It" comes to mind...

 

I will say it again...That car should have never been off the goddamn trailer.

just for fun, everybdy look up at the ceiling.


Did You look up? Do You know why You looked up?

Because I presented a reason for You to do so.

I assure You very few, if any of those folks went downtown for the express purpose of seeing a smoky burnout. They were there for the parade,fanfare, and eronious shit. Hell, I betcha half of those folks had no Idea what was gonna happen.

The idea that some teenage kids even had enough synapses firing to think "This is a dangerous situation, perhaps I should be farther away from the business end of this RACE CAR?" Is daft.

It's not pussification ( as it was so eloquently themed), it was simple negligence.

The cops moved the crowd back. brilliant. Betcha Roscoe P Coltrain and Flash had a real clear idea on what was gonna happen next.

I cannot beleive the promoter has taken the stance he has on this issue.


here's a thought....Let's say the car went straight and true. Then at the end of the street, a lone child wandered into it's path. while the parents would certianly have been more to blame, inherently, it would still be the drivers fault...why?

Because it STILL a goddamn RACE CAR.

 

I'm with Lux Blue on this. I hadn't seen the video until just now and my 15 year old behind me says "How Retarded!" and "They aren't street legal, Morons."

What happened was ridiculous. I can't believe he did a huge burnout like that, it was almost like a pass. I thought he was doing a brake torque type burnout, not a full 'heat up the tires like you're running a pass' burnout. Now I understand how he got out of sorts.

Stupid by the driver. Stupid by the organizers. Stupid by the others who OKed it.

I suspect the organizer will end up paying up. What an arrogant ass.

 

Many good points here... Nobody forced those people to stand there and watch. It sucks that some were lost and others hurt but dammit people, I think it's safe to say the driver didn't intend to take those people out.

On the flip side... The driver should have never taken that risk. Yeah, yeah... I'm sure he has done a ba-zillion burnouts before but still not a good idea.

What gets me is that Hulk Hogans kid got 8 months of jail time for an accident involving his friend and him... and nobody died. His buddy will never be the same and the whole thing sucks but 8 months??? Holy crap! This guy killed people and hurt many others and he got 18 months probation. I'm not a wrestling fan at all, but I really think his kid got the shaft.

 

If you are going to compare 'famous' to 'regular' people, just look at Detroit. The mayor has violated all of his bond restrictions yet they wanted to take off the tether today and let him go to the Democratic Convention. Some judges will nail 'famous' people, others will let them walk.

I saw a sig line that says my hot rod has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.

Some set the example, some ARE the example. I think it makes a difference that this guy showed he really was sorry (or a really good act at it). Not saying HH kid wasn't, don't know the case.