The injured at the Cacklefest ? (B.G.KY)

For God's sake, when will people learn? You CAN NOT have people standing on a race track while cars are running.
Even under yellow in NASCAR and open-wheel racing there have been instances of safety workers getting clipped by cars. Why on earth do we need to expose people on a drag-strip to the same dangers?
Common sense people, common sense.

 

Yeah. And we should outlaw them from starting in the pits, because the same thing could happen if one were to fall off jackstands...

...and put mufflers on them because they are too loud and make peoples ears ring...

...and those front tires are too narrow and will not allow the car to steer out of the way of danger...

...they need bumpers and air bags...

here we go again...

 

I spoke to Dave McClelland who was the emcee for the event and here is what he told me.

1. Pure Heaven incident - Jim Adolph, veteran F/C pilot was in the seat. The car next to him fired up and the fumes were shooting directly into Adolph's face so he tried to pull forward a bit to get out of the path of the other car's headers. He must have "kicked" the car into reverse on accident and it lunged backward. He then pulled the fuel shut off which leaned out the motor and raised the RPM of the blown fuel Chevy enough to make it a bad situation. Adolph had both hands on the brake but couldn't get it stopped and it pinned two guys. None of them sustained severe injuries - just bad bruises.

2. - Heart attack guy. This was not a heart attack. The man who had the health issue was an old friend/NHRA staffer helping event director Steve Gibbs with the cacklefest. When the Pure Heaven incident was going down, he ran like the ****ens to get a fire extinguisher to kill the motor in PH. This man has a defribulator on board as he has heart issues and he evidently over exerted himself and was out of breath. He jumped over the guardrail and layed down knowing he was about to p*** out from over exertion. He never actually did have a heart attack and he was fine the next day.

Hope this info helps. It was from a Big Mac - a very credible story and a man who was standing on the track when the whole thing went down

 

you can STFU about the "typical liberals" before some whiney liberal like myself posts something like this: http://tvnewslies.org/html/day_in_the_life_of_joe_middle-.html. this wasn't a freak accident, if the cas started itself it would be a freak accident, fact is SOMEONE ****ED UP! someone who damn well should have known better. people let their guards down because they were not racing. it didn't help that at the last minute they changes the procedure. NHRA should take a long hard look at what happened and make appropiate changes. funny how many of you crying about NHRA overreacting are yourselves overreacting. i guess irony is far from dead.

 

Thirty-five, you miss my point. In drag racing there is no reason for anyone to be on the track surface while cars are running as there's no need for yellow laps in the way other types of racing use them. I'm not suggesting wrapping everyone in styrofoam, just be smart about the situations you allow to arise.
And it's all fun and games until someone gets killed, I know, cuz I've come home from an event without one of my guys. Makes you a lot more aware of what's acceptable as far as risks go.

 

Well it does make it pretty hard to start a Top Fuel car if no one else is around when using blower starter.

1) Everyone is OK. Thank God and everyone else for that.
2) It was not on purpose. Jim Adolph is not a amatuer by any stretch.
3) What went wrong? Do not alter the damn rules again go back to old format.
4) Problem solved.

 

I don't think anyone said he didn't have experience... I made the comment because I have seen inexperienced people put in the seat of cacklefest cars.

But he did screw up somewhere if the car went into reverse without him putting it in reverse.

The entire NHRA rule book has evolved because **** happens... and then they make a rule so it does not happen again.

Sam.

 

We all like to think that it's greedy individuals that sue things out of existence, in reality greedy insurance companies drive way more of it than anyone knows. My health insurance provider once sued my in-laws because my son was hurt horsing around at their house. Let's just say that made holidays a little tense for a while. About 3 years later another trip to the emergency room. I ended up paying the entire bill because the school system (it happened at school) refused liability and I wouldn't give up the name and address of friends so that they could be sued. Makes me wonder why I gave up $85/week out of my check for health insurance. Around here the hospitals have been refusing insurance settlements from accident victims because they make more money by suing. Who's winning the "lawsuit lottery"? This event could be in serious jeopardy from lawsuits even if everyone involved is a life-long race fan who wouldn't dream of hurting the sport they love. They may not have a choice.

 

Ok, so I'll ask my question again. Do these cars have "kill switches" and if so does it automaticly shut the car down??? Just curious

 

They don't have a dead-man switch like a drag bike... If they have a magneto, they have a mag-switch which would kill the motor, but that would be further away from the driver than the fuel shut off valve. The fuel shut off valve shuts the flow to the barrel valve... but when you shut that off, the motor does not die as fast as a mag kill switch. With the fuel shut off... the motor leans out, and then the rpm rises...

It's also easy for us to armchair quarterback this thing... so I'll shut up.

Sam.

 

I can think of worse ways to go.