"For Sweden" (rallybeetle)
06/11/2014 at 12:17 • Filed to: Le Mans, Safety

It's sad to see that the ACO has learned nothing from Allan Simonsen's tragic death last year. This crash didn't occur at the same part of the track as Simonsen's, but the ACO's fondness of hard surfaces to crash into remains.

DISCUSSION (10)

Viggen > For Sweden
06/11/2014 at 12:38

What I find irritating is the ACO added additional tires to two corners in the Porsche Curves yet left this wall exposed.

Raphael Orlove > For Sweden
06/11/2014 at 13:08

Holy crap! Where'd you find this picture?

For Sweden > Raphael Orlove
06/11/2014 at 13:09

Here: http://jalopnik.com/thats-a-horrif…

tromoly > For Sweden
06/11/2014 at 14:47

Stop. Just, stop. This happens every single time anything happens, people start chastising others for things, becoming armchair experts. Unless you have a direct involvement with anything related to the event, just stop. These mini crusades don't do anything and irritate those who do have a part in the events, back off and let those involved do their jobs.

For Sweden > tromoly
06/11/2014 at 14:49

I'm not an armchair expert; aviation safety is my job.

Hard walls around racetracks are a simple hazard to mitigate; perhaps the simplest one in racing.

Huell Howitzer > For Sweden
06/11/2014 at 15:57

I don't know where exactly on the track this barrier was, so I don't have all the information. If it was "a simple hazard to mitigate," do you really really think they wouldn't have addressed it? You really think they're that callous? On most tracks, in all racing series, hard walls constitute a large portion of the barriers. Compactable barriers, tire walls, etc. are used in areas that are most likely to see impact, but for some reason do not seem to be used for the ENTIRE course, be it some logistics, or financial reason. This isn't an ACO issue. Accidents can happen anywhere- you can blow a tire on a straight and hit a wall on either side. Take a look at Google Street View of Laguna Seca some time. There's all sorts of walls that are simply concrete slabs with dirt berms behind them for support. The slabs are there to keep the car from continuing on into the crowd, but have no compression. They simply are going by the odds that it is unlikely a car will go off at speed in that area, but believe me- the potential is always there, otherwise there wouldn't be a wall. And if someone does hit that wall at speed and dies or is injured significantly, the reaction will be just like yours. You can predict for the likeliest accidents, but there's millions of ways to get injured and it is easy to react and second guess past decisions; that's what is happening now, and that's what usually happens.

For Sweden > Huell Howitzer
06/11/2014 at 16:01

You're using the quite scary justification that the job of safety is something that can be completed. Bad things that can happen usually don't, but their rarity is no excuse to do nothing. Clearly a car can hit an unpadded wall at race speeds at Le Mans, so they should be padded, even if it rarely happens.

Huell Howitzer > For Sweden
06/11/2014 at 16:14

I'm not saying job safety can be completed, quite the opposite. I'm saying you can protect against the most likely sources of injury or death, but never all of them.

Why do you suppose that there are still some uncompressable, unprotected surfaces on the perimeters of all race tracks? Why? Callousness to the lives of the drivers? Is that what you're implying? You claim it is "easy" to make every single surface around the track a Safer Barrier or a tire wall, so why don't they do this? I'm wondering why you think that they don't.

For Sweden > Huell Howitzer
06/11/2014 at 16:52

Easy as the research has been done. The reason we still have unprotected walls is a "good enough" safety culture

Huell Howitzer > For Sweden
06/11/2014 at 16:58

Again, I haven't seen the video of the crash, but it appears that the car actually may have been torn up by catch fencing, which seems to be the next challenge (one that you could claimed the end of Dario Franchitti's career.)