Safety on NZ Tracks (Picture of wrecked car ! !)

[Kiwi XTR2]

My apologies if anyone is upset by this picture.

It's of a Porsche that hit a wall at California Speedway recently resulting in a double fatality.

[pic]http://images.ibsys.com/2005/0602/4562735_480X360.jpg[/pic]

I don't really know where on the track this is, but my first question is where was the tyre barrier ? There appears to be room ?

Maybe I've watched too much F1 and become a little de-sensitized to the risks involved.

How does everyone feel about the passive safety of NZ's tracks ?

I'm not entirely happy about the entry onto the front straight at Puke.

Has the bump on the inside of the shallow right at the end of the front straight been fixed ?

[Esprit]

Well for starters we tend to have armco, that looks like a direct impact on concrete block, which is less forgiving... it's still not as safe as it could be.

I'm surprised that's a double fatality... the passenger cabin seems relatively intact.... but then again it's all in the luck of the draw, sometimes cars are completely demolished and people walk away..... you'll never totally eliminate the risk anyway, even if you wrap every barrier in feet of styrofoam..... I'd say with a Carrera GT, you'd be able to find many new and exciting ways to kill yourself.

[kylie]

Wow, pretty sad for the families involved. Goes to show the total respect one must have for their toys at the track. One slip up at a reasonable speed and its all over. Had a few spins to remind me about respect for the car and track!. Those concrete barriers are everywhere at the Taupo track. Some yrs back a V8 esprit got tail happy going through a chicane and landed with its rear end up over the side of the barrier, did close to $8000 worth of damage. Pukekohe has plenty of pitfalls too. The idea is to be sponsored, cage yourself in and play smash up derbys with the others

[Kiwi XTR2]

Esprit said:

the passenger cabin seems relatively intact....

A minor point but being a LHD the passenger cabin is the bit that's totalled. The car is about 18" narrower than it should be (not obvious from that photo).

Passenger died at the scene. Driver died in hospital.

Without going into the details it seems nothing in the car could have saved the passenger (alhough some kitty-litter and a tyre barrier might have) and a HANS-device would probably have saved the driver.

[roger a]

sand/gravel traps aren't expensive, surely. That's really not good enough-And, as was said, some old tyres even!

[gtivr4]

This was at the California Speedway (road course), which is an oval. Apparently what happened was a Ferrari was released at the pit out but hesitated, and ended up coming out not far from the Carrera, which was travelling at very high speed (over 150mph), and the driver (very experienced) had to take evasive manouevers, and crashed at around 150mph (250 km/h or so).

Looks to be a combination of the Ferrari shouldn't have been released, but it also shouldn't have hesitated, and the pit out at California Speedway isn't as safe as it should be. Very sad.

Here is a thread about the incident (from people that knew the driver):
www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61681