HUGE crash during Indy 500 practice

[IndyAndy777]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18pFE6cRHYw

They say she is okay, she was walking and talking etc. The biggest concern is the 2nd degree burn to her hand. Simona was taken to hospital in Indianapolis, where she is currently being treated.

A bit more info from Autosport:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91510

Scary stuff, when you consider they are limited to 230mph, and the crash happened going into turn 3!

[hornet]

Scary looking crash, especially going upside down into the fence like that. Depressing amount of "pft, that's what happens when you let women drive" comments on that video already.

[fatboy69]

Jeez - she was lucky to get away from that with, hopefully, minor injuries. It looks as though the right rear suspension broke so how anyone can adopt the 'women drivers' blah blah blah attitude is beyond me.

Could have happened to anyone.

[IndyAndy777]

According to the Indy 500 Facebook page, it was rear suspension failure when she was going into turn 3.

[moffspeed]

Not good to see fire at Indy again.

Not good to hear that Legatd has crossed the pond and adopted a dodgy American accent....

[Eric Mc]

We had a heated discussion a few weeks ago about containment of high speed crashes. What was interesting to see was how readilly the car wanted to lift off aerodynamically at the slightest inclination. At 230 mph, virtually ANYTHING becomes capable of generating aerodynamic lift and is liable to take off.

I wonder what would have happened at any of our GP tracks if cars were achieving those types of speeds.

Hope she recovers.

[E36Rob]

They had a small feature on this crash this morning on the BBC News, they also showed footage of her walking away and a fairly close up of her hands with no gloves on of which didnt really show any serious burns.

[PabloTeK]

She has a picture on her Twitter with what she refers to as "mickey mouse gloves" on, seems to be in relatively good spirits though!

[LordGrover]

Is this race on telly over here anywhere?

[anonymous-user]

Sunday 29th, Sky Sports 4/HD4 at 4:30pm - Live

[LordGrover]

[FourWheelDrift]

It's obvious the speed they travel at but the distance she goes having the accident is really well shown in that video as the camera tries to pan around from left to right to follow her after she hit the wall at turn 3 and her car is already in the distance hitting the wall at turn 4.

[zeb]

glad she's ok, could have been nasty that one

[IndyAndy777]

Bit of an update here:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91550

At least she is back trackside, she wont be part of qualifying though.

[jbudgie]

moffspeed said:

Not good to see fire at Indy again.

Not good to hear that Legatd has crossed the pond and adopted a dodgy American accent....

What a weird and awful commentary.

[chevronb37]

Really spooks me seeing fire in a crash. Glad she's OK but the way the car lifted was very similar to Mike Conway's accident last year. Anyone know what the new-for-2012 Dallara has up its sleeve in terms of safety?

[Eric Mc]

It is very hard to stop a car (or anything) want to lift off at those types of speeds. Once the underside of the car is presented to the high speed airflow, off she'll go.

[paulshears]

[Allyc85]

ooooh eck! Got away lightly with that one!

[davepoth]

Eric Mc said:

It is very hard to stop a car (or anything) want to lift off at those types of speeds. Once the underside of the car is presented to the high speed airflow, off she'll go.

I think they need to look at the barriers again - the car was going far too fast when it hit the catch fence - it may have stayed upright if that was concrete.