That's awful... this is obviously a rare incident but one can never be too careful. For MM flaggers: Always be sure the track is clear through radio communication, and have another worker at your station watch the track if you need to pick up debris or walk on track. Stay alert!
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Reminds me of the time I almost got run over by a stock car at Hyper-Fest in Charlotte...
I wouldn't be surprised if this was a combination of a few ignorant things we've seen over the years.
1. Amateur stock car racing series. For the SCCS that ran with NASA all they had to do to get a license to race this 500 hp stock cars was fill out a form and send $100. Um...bad idea. Perhaps this guy wasn't exactly well trained either.
2. Catching the pack on a yellow. In most series there's no real speed limit for full course caution but you're supposed to slow the F down. Apparently this guy didn't do that.
3. Corner workers not watching each other's backs. Nuff said.
4. Corner workers without flags. From what I've seen at ovals they don't have corner stations with flaggers that at the very least can show exactly where an incident is. Of course, on an oval you can see everything in advance so there's not much excuse to say, "Oh I didn't know where the accident was..."
5. Red Mist.
6. The dude should've been looking waaaayyyy ahead. Especially if its a full course yellow.
sounds like he was trying to catch the pack
well, by no means should the driver have struck the worker under yellow... you definitely should take it down a notch when under yellow which definitely gives you a lot more time to assess whats around you.
that being said, the worker should not have been put in the path of an oncoming car. even if for some reason he was, he shouldnt go out without letting race control know, letting fellow workers know so they can watch his back, and without knowing himself that more cars were on their way, even if this dude was catching up to the pack. a previous worker can tell him that there's still cars on track and heading his way.
regardless, i dont want something like this to scare people away from working events. just keep in mind that safety is the biggest issue when it comes to what we do. so long as you keep your head out of your ass, and dont do something foolish, you'll be fine.
my 2 cents
-b
1994 Ford Ranger
2004 Honda S2000
2007 BMW X3
I'm gonna have to say it was moreso the driver's fault. Having had the accident in that corner he knew where he had to slow down on the track. But, at the same time since it was his accident he may have thought the coast was clear. I dunno, drivers just really need to chill out when the caution is thrown, rules should be adopted to enforce this instead of making yellow flags a time for strategic maneuvers.
Either way it sucks, one of very few injured courseworkers every year. Since it is something our club is grounded in I figured we ought to at least acknowledge this guy's unfortunate passing.
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