Re: Speed Creep!

["Paul Foster" <pfoster@tampabay.rr.com>]

Mike B asks:

<<<This disscussion brings me to ask a question. Has there been any
deaths in SoloII competitions?? What are the statistics for injuries?
Or does anyone have an answer??? Or is this something thats just not
disscussed?>>>

AFAIK there have been 3 deaths attributed to autocross events. Two were in
Irvine CA when a Prepared Lotus Elan hit a tree. It was speculated that it
was either due to a stuck throttle or the driver having a heart attack. The
passenger had never driven at an autocross and was getting his very first
ride to see what the sport was about.

The other death happened in Northern Florida (or was it Southern Georgia???)
when a father who was videotaping his son was blindsided by a car spinning
in the rain.

Nobody but Risk Management has any numbers or even details on the deaths and
they aren't talking. That is also why a group of us amateur racers and SCCA
volunteers are now creating an online repository of road racing incidents so
the drivers will have access to the data to help make the proper safety
decisions. Adding Solo II to the database would not be difficult but I am
certain that it will not be appreciated by the powers that be. Their excuse
for not divulging this information is that it will escalate lawsuits against
the club despite the same data being made public by the likes of the
skydivers associations and the cave divers associations to help make their
sports as safe as possible.

Discussing incidents is the ONLY way to make motorsports safer. We need to
learn an object lesson with the ongoing NASCAR debacle. See
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/sns-earnhardt.story?coll=orl%2Dhom
for their latest excuses.

Paul Foster