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

Unfortunately when any event where burnouts are occuring (legal or not) seems there are always a few idiots trying to show off. We had an innocent bystander killed here at Americruise a few years back and the local police blamed it all on the hot rods in town when in fact it was an immigrant who was in a hurry and ran off the road killing a young lady and left two young children without thier mother. When any mention of hot rods,racing,classic cars or anything to do with car people makes the news the general public wants to ban any automotive ventures because we are all bad news trashy people in their eyes. That is why we need to police our own so no one gets stupid and kills someone.

 

This is so awful!...All those kids...those poor kids and thier families..My heart aches for them...
So many peoples lives are ended and destroyed over this...

What the hell were these event people thinking?
Someone is gonna get crusified over this...and frankly they should..........................BUT.......

Because of this being a "Car Event" Now of course this is gonna become the beacon that lobbiests, legislators, politicians, law enforcement...etc... use to further restrict "hotrods/hotrodding", (how convienient) and because of the bad press coverage (and LOTS of it) even the news can't get thier information right.....they just continue broadcast blindly and speculate until the truth comes to the surface...Untill then.... they'll say whatever is the most shocking from ANY source...

I am sooo angry, saddened, and disgusted with all of this,
I don't have the words...

 

I am shocked over this trajedy, it should not have happened.

 

It was a bad scene. Stupid. In public forums, like this one, we should not give amunition to people who would legeslate our hobby and cars out of existence. Asaulting someone with a bat is NOT baseball. This is not drag racing. Or hot rodding.

All from me on this…

 

wow. this is horrible. i feel for the families of all involved.

 

One day after a drag-racing car careened into a crowd and killed six people, witnesses questioned why the driver was allowed to speed down a multilane highway with no guard rails, lined on both sides by hundreds spectators.

"It ain't really safe to do anything with drag cars on a city street," said 19-year-old Garett Moore, who said he was about 15 feet away from the wreck, but was uninjured. "They shouldn't have done it."

Tennessee Highway Patrol spokesman Mike Browning said Sunday the six killed were in their teens or early 20s. The accident injured at least 18 others, including a 5-year-old boy, who were taken to hospitals in Tennessee and Mississippi.

The crash happened Saturday during an "exhibition burnout" — when a drag racer spins his tires to make them heat up and smoke — at the Cars for Kids charity event in Selmer, located about 80 miles east of Memphis.

Amateur video of the crash, broadcast on WMC-TV in Memphis, showed the car's engine revving loudly before the vehicle sped down a highway. After a few hundred feet, the smoking car skidded off the road in front of a drive-in restaurant.

Authorities identified the driver as pro drag racer Troy Warren Critchley, an Australian who is now based in Wylie, Texas. He suffered minor injuries and was taken by car to a nearby hospital for treatment, authorities said.

There were no criminal charges against Critchley, Browning said.

There was a guard rail along at least part of the highway, but not along the stretch where the crash occurred.

Nick Staples, who was at the car show and charity event with his wife and three children from Columbus, Miss., said he was standing 20 feet from where the car plowed into the audience.

"There should have been guard rails," Staples said. "But even if there had been, it wouldn't have mattered."

Kay White, a manager at the Elm's Restaurant across the street from the accident, said she was taking a cigarette break when she heard a crash, screams and cries for help.

"The best way I could describe the crowd's reaction was like the people from 9/11. They were just walking around with a blank, distant stare," White said. "You could tell they were ... wondering what had happened."

Mourners placed small votive candles, flowers, a teddy bear and a ceramic angel at the crash site Sunday.

The Highway Patrol said Raven Griswell, 15, of Finger; and Sean Michael Driskill, 22, of Adamsville, died at the scene. Four others — Brook L. Pope, 20, of Selmer; Scarlett Replogle, 15, of Selmer; Kimberly A. Barfield, 17, of Adamsville; and Nicole Griswell, 19, of Selmer, all died later in area hospitals.

The AMS Pro Modified Series, which sponsors professional drag races, issued a news release saying the driver, a veteran of more than 20 years in drag racing, was performing a burnout when road conditions caused the car to go out of control. The Highway Patrol said it had no information about road conditions.

Matthew Brammer, administrator of AMS Pro Modified Series, which sanctions drag races, said Critchley had driven the car involved in the wreck in competition.

Critchley's Web site said he began his career in an engine building shop in Brisbane, Australia, in 1986, and then raced on the Australian circuit in the '90s. He moved to the United States in 1998. By late Sunday afternoon, the Web site carried a message saying it was not available.

Moore, the 19-year-old witness, said before the crash there had been a parade of cars — everything from antique cars to modern dragsters. But he thought the show was over.

"I was about to head across the street, and I saw him barreling toward us."

Other dragsters in the parade had been spinning their tires and then accelerating quickly, but everyone else put on the breaks before going past the guard rails, Moore said.

"This is definitely not the kind of road you should be drag racing on," Moore said, noting that most public roads have an arc, or hump, that lets rain run off more quickly. "This isn't a flat open surface like you have at a race track."

Matt Griffin, who was at the car show, has been drag racing for five years and agreed that running a dragster on a city street was a "pretty stupid thing to do."

"There's a button inside the car that you hold down, and it holds the front tires down during a burnout," said Griffin, 19. "If the throttle gets hung, or if your foot gets caught, then you'll take off and you wouldn't be able to stop.

"Most drag-racing tracks put down an adhesive to make your tires stick. You don't really do that on streets. Most drag racing tracks have a fence. Some even have a wall."

Authorities closed the festival after the crash. About 40,000 to 60,000 people were expected to attend the weekend event.

Cars for Kids holds several events throughout the nation and raises close to $200,000 annually for charities that help children in need, according to its Web site.

A statement posted on the Web site Sunday offered an apology to the victims and their families: "The loss is deep within our hearts and we will carry the scars of each loss forever."

The charity was formed in 1990, two years after founder Larry Price's son, Chad, suffered a severe head injury in a bicycle accident. Price promised that if his son was saved from lifelong injuries, he would spend the rest of his life raising funds for disabled children, according to the Web site.

Price did not immediately return calls seeking comment Sunday.




___Authorities revised the death toll down to six Sunday, instead of the seven initially reported dead, after a drag-racing car went out of control and careened into a crowd of spectators. Tennessee Highway Patrol spokesman Mike Browning said six people were killed, including two 15-year-old girls and a 17-year-old girl.

 

What a shame......

 

I watched a proffesional drag racer and racing school instrutor put 3-4 different people in one of his cars simular to this one.This took place in a car dealers lot absolutely nothing between car and spectators !all the drivers were 1st timers in this type car.they were tought proper launch through 1st and second gear traveling mabey 100 feet between launch and shutdown.I won't name the dealer but they have been a big name in racing for 3 generations.if people with that much knowledge of drag racing couldn't see a problem with this type demo at a car show how can people be saying a charity event organizer should know?

 

7 killed and how many injured ?

Why wasn't this charity event helded at a drag strip instead of city streets,,,,where promoters know first hand what can happen when a car goes up in smoke,,,,

I truly am sorry for all involved,,,the dead and the living,,,,I pray the dead were ready for their maker,,,,and the living,,,because they will relive this error in judgement every day for years to come.HRP

 

This is why there are sooo many cops cracking down on burnouts at the Woodward Dream Cruise. What a shame..... Prayers go out to all invloved.

 

It's been a lot of years since anything shook me up this much. Had a nightmare about it last night - I was driving the car. And I've been watching the media snowball and it's making me really nervous.
This is big stuff and I get the feeling that our reaction to it will be key to the future of hot rodding. So I'm trying to keep the big picture in focus and not let my self get in the way...That isn't easy, because this is so upsetting...

 

Just watched it on you tube. That guy was FLYING!! What a dumb ass!

 

I just watched the video on the NBC Nightly News. INSANE!!!! What was that driver thinking? If he has so much experience (20 years) why the FUCK would he be doing burnouts with people standing so near the car? A very bad scene! The lawyers will be lining up and rightly they should! Prayers to anyone who lost someone yesterday. -stick :

 

Its a drag car....

a crazy one, that was misused.

Not somebody cruising in a custom, enjoying their hot rod of any sort.

I feel that hot rods are pretty much just as safe, if not more safe, than most of the crap boxes that have been rolling out of East Asia and Detroit for the past 20 years. Their probably maintained better actually.

Most of our vehicles have maybe a quarter of the horsepower this car has, or less. Weigh about the same, and are certainly not driven like this. Ours are built to drive, on the roads. This thing was built to race, on the track.

 

Sad story.

I have been predicting this in our town for awhile when they have a big parade of street rods downtown. Guys sit and wait for the parade to move on and then do massive burnouts. One is a Pro Street (loosely speaking, but it is tagged) fiberglass 55 Chev with a blower on alcohol... An officer pulled a gun on this guy one year. Some of the cars are ragged junk and someone will probably lose a c-clip or something some time and take a right turn into a group of little kids. I hope not.

I admit to romping on it occasionally when I would leave a show.

...not any more...

Prayers are with those who need em.

 

I had a 66 Nova hit my daily driver at a local car show about three year ago. Liking up for the parade and he was showing off for the ladies. Totaled my cutlass. Not the nicer RWD kind, the FWD pos station wagon. Not my loss, but it could have been worse. DA TINMAN said it, time and place. Prayers to the family.

 

Maybe if we ignore it will go away.

Were several thousand people just fueling the fire for the media.

 

Aside from the obvious tragedy, I'm also struck by a certain irony in the situation . Wasn't it about 57 yr. ago that Wally Parks, Robert Peterson and others, pretty much devoted their lives to getting drag racing off the public streets and onto organized drag strips due in large part to quell the public outcry of "crazy hotrodders" killng innocent people ? 57 yrs. and 1000 h.p. later and...............Well, I guess we don't learn so good.

 

Criminal Negligence...

What a terrible tragedy.

I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like.

RIP all those lost.

 

What the fuck are you talking about?

Part of our responsibility in this hobby is to build SAFE vehicles and operate them safely.

IGNORE IT????

There are 6 people DEAD. You can't ignore that.

Personally, I'm going to try and make my car safer. I've been ripping around with a dodgey brake hose. I'm going to fix that before I take the car out again. I could also fix up several other items that I'll not go into here. I ride around at 80+ sometimes. I'm going to back off on that I guarantee. What if I'd lose steering and hit an innocent kid in their yard....or a bicyclist pedalling down the road?

No.

This shit is hitting home. Life is too precious for people to do dumb shit like many of us are guilty of.

I've preached for the hooliganism on here before. I'm now feeling rather ashamed of some things I've written.

........burn outs???? Sure. They're still fun........but not when a crowd is around or you could hit some kids.

 

makes me sick..... did he just get too excited and hold the throttle or did it stick?

 

Here's another video that illustrates just how serious things can get with a "mildly modified" car. It is not out of the realm of possibilities for an accident like this one to happen on the street or wherever there are some "show-offs" performing their "stunts".

Definately something to think about...."KEEP THE RACING ON THE RACETRACKS!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2tk8X8tZok&mode=related&search=

 

stupid, just pure stupidity, it should have never happend

what a tragedy

that being said i am surprised that this kind of thing doesnt happen more often, especially in offroad and rally racing. if you have ever seen footage of the trucks running in baja through the crowds at 100+mph you would know what im talking about.

this video is a grim reminder of what can happen in a fraction of a second when a car loses control.
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And people wonder why some of us rant,about poorly constructed unsafe "ratrods"and how their actions can affect us all!!!Yes i know this was a racecar,but this is a wakeup call!!My thoughts and prayers to all the victims and their families.Having been involved,as a crewmember,in dragracing for over 20 yrs,i am shocked,to see such an event in such an inappropriate location.A very sad day for motorsport in general.

 

fuckin jackass

 

Hindsight is 20/20. How many of us would have been standing there watching it? It was a planned exhibition. Troy is one of the nicest guys in promod racing. He is down to earth polite caring individual. This was a terrible accident and people should be held accountable but calling him a MFer and a jack ass doesn't fix the situation. It is a terrible tragedy and should have never been done. This was last years exhibition that went according to planed. I am not making excuses for anyone but please show a little compassion for Everyone involved. This is a post from Promod source that has a link to video of the Voodoo car doing the same thing a year before. Sadness fills me for everyone involved.

Just been on to the cars for kids' site and found this.....

http://www.carsforkidsusa.org/multim...dooBurnout.wmv

I guess after this successful display by Doug Palmer at a previous event, the organizers had no real concerns that Troy's demo wouldn't go according to plan too.

I agree with many of the other posts, that pointing fingers and finding someone or something to shoulder the blame is fruitless. I think the fact that the authorities are taking no legal action against Troy speaks volumes. Unfortunately accidents happen, just as the example at Santa Pod last September proved, but speculation and presumption will only lead to increased hurt and stress for all parties involved. Only Troy knows what happened inside that race-car and no amount of speculation from internet warriors will change that.

Hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing, but displays and events such as this have been around for many years and have done wonders to promote the sport we love and raise awareness for the good causes they represent. I agree that in future instances, marked safety improvements need to be implemented, but I hope this weekends events don't signal the end of such displays..........there are only ever good intentions at heart.

I'm glad that this site is remaining relatively free from the scapegoats and ignorant wolves that are commenting on the subject on various other places on the net, I just hope that they use what little brain power they have to refrain from any more speculation and allow the families and all involved parties to come to terms with these unfortunate events.

The Drag Racing community is one of the tightest knit-families there is, and I'm sure the entire AMS/Rage team need nothing but support and understanding right now.

Once again, our thoughts and prayers go out to all involved.

 

i think its harsh to critise the driver without knowing what happened,maybe the car had a problem. He must be feeling lousy about the whole thing-to blame him is harsh.

 

The problem was the Car. It should not have been there doing that.

As for empathy for the driver and the team, Sorry I can't do it. Had this accident happened at a dragstrip I would be the first one to stand up and defend Troy and the team. Racecars don't belong on the street, racing doesn't belong on the street. This was quite simply the most disgusting display of stupidity I have ever seen.

My philosophy on this kind of stuff is simple. I have the right to risk my life, I do not however have the right to risk yours.

Its sad that the charity will suffer, and that the show may not go on.

 

Did ANY of you read the whole article? Out of 5 pages of post there were only 2-3 people that sounded like they read the article.
Every year this show has a parade of these cars down a certain street. This street is lined with a gaurd rail for a short distance.
Every year these cars are allowed to do burnouts along the guard railed area. Unfortunately this one car exceeded the length of the guard rail and lost control. (who knows why?)
This was Not a random act of showing off. It was expected of some of these cars to do a burnout.
It was by far NOT a drag race.