Two people dead in CGT track accident
Discussion
I just read this on the 6Speed forum that I know a few people on here also frequent and I wasn't really sure whether to cross-post it, but it is very sad news and something I guess we should all be aware of when considering our own (sometimes carefree) attitude to speed either at track events or Top Speed days.
Bascially two people died in a CGT at a trackday yesterday in California. The driver of the CGT was a well-known and respected forum member on 6Speed who I have chatted to there.
The public news channels have info here:
http://www.nbc4.tv/news/4562562/detail.html#
The full set of posts on 6Speed is here:
http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27663&perpage=15&pagenumber=1
All I can say is that it certainly made me think about how lightly we treat speed sometimes and how dangerous it can sadly prove to be on rare occasions, even at places and in vehicles that you would think otherwise.
Guy
The carbon monocoque is very strong, so it doesn't distort, but the deceleration has to go somewhere i.e. into the occupants bodies.
The car is almost adjaecent to where it hit the barrier, so this suggests the impact was almost head-on, so a huge amount of energy would have been dissipated in a short distance, which equals very high instantaneous g-force.
GuyR said:
The carbon monocoque is very strong, so it doesn't distort, but the deceleration has to go somewhere i.e. into the occupants bodies.
The car is almost adjaecent to where it hit the barrier, so this suggests the impact was almost head-on, so a huge amount of energy would have been dissipated in a short distance, which equals very high instantaneous g-force.
Interestingly there doesn't appear to be a great deal of deformation. I'm not sure on the specifics of the CGT's crash structure, but I agree with what you are saying. Technology has now got to the stage where the occupant protection cell remains intact, however the fragility of the human body is still something of a weak point...
verysideways said:
Hard to believe two people died from this - the passenger compartment looks remarkably intact, in the pictures on NBC you can see the seats and airbags and so on.
Sad news.
That is an incredible accident, as already said, the car does not look badly damaged.. but the sudden de-acceleration would have been considerable upon the occupants.!
Think Porsche will be seriously looking into this one, and possible lawsuits to follow, it is in the US after all.!
I know the driver was a member on the Rennlist forum, so condolences to his family.
It does show you, how easliy things can go badly wrong on track, even when you think you're quite safe..(crash helmet, crash barriers etc.)
verysideways said:
The human body has a remarkable ability to be both enormously strong and shockingly fragile.
Strange isn't it. The amount of force you can exert through your arm and shoulder is huge relatively speaking, yet a lateral impact will break the clavicle.
It some ways it's like an F1 cars suspension. Incredibly strong and resilient in dealing with the forces it is designed for, yet put a non-standard force on it and it will break relatively easily...
rubystone said:
Didn't he hit someone waved out of the pits?....that always worries me - passing the pits with open pit lane - cars came exit at any time - Brands is a ngihtmare for that - in a low car you just can't really see what's coming down the straight
Apparently a car was waved out, the driver hesitated, his passenger yelled 'go go go' and he did, just as the marshall yelled 'stop'.
At least at brands they shouldn't cut right across your line into paddock.
Its a tragic accident, but without being there I don't think we can hypothesise as to how preventable it was.
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