V8 Supercar crash in Adelaide - driver in critical condition

[Jungles]

Article: http://www.theage.com.au/news/motorsport/v8-driver...

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCyUr5EU6AQ

Let's hope and pray for a safe recovery.

[Muz_Wez]

Looked nasty & sounds bad. Critical but stable is the latest position I'm told which sounds slightly better. I assume they'll keep him in an induced coma until the brain swelling goes down.

[Martin Keene]

Nasty. No energy disappation at all. Almost a dead stop into the wall.

[johnph]

What do V8 Supercars have in the way of side protection?

I know that in DTM cars the driver sits very close to the centre and bottom edge of the door comes up very high, and in the Nascar Sprint Cup cars they have absorbant foam and carbon fibre sheeting.

[anonymous-user]

Hopefully he will recover from that fully, it was a nasty crash but the car hit fairly evenly along the side so no one point of contact should have been able to move the shell structure in very far, so i think he has a better chance of minimising damage than hitting something edge on or being T-Boned, which is always a worry in saloon cars.

Street courses are seriously dangerous places when you look at the lack of crash protection available.

[FourWheelDrift]

johnph said:

What do V8 Supercars have in the way of side protection?

Usually a lot, the thing is though Aussie V8's are right hand drive and that was a big left hand side hit so I suspect it's not side impact protection but head/helmet against roll cage or raceseat sides that caused the injury. Perhaps he was not wearing a hans deivce too?

[GravelBen]

FourWheelDrift said:

johnph said:

What do V8 Supercars have in the way of side protection?

Usually a lot, the thing is though Aussie V8's are right hand drive and that was a big left hand side hit so I suspect it's not side impact protection but head/helmet against roll cage or raceseat sides that caused the injury. Perhaps he was not wearing a hans deivce too?

Pretty sure they're not allowed to race without hans. It was a big solid hit though, hope he recovers ok.

[tim the pool man]

johnph said:

What do V8 Supercars have in the way of side protection?

I know that in DTM cars the driver sits very close to the centre and bottom edge of the door comes up very high, and in the Nascar Sprint Cup cars they have absorbant foam and carbon fibre sheeting.

Hit on the passenger side so I'm not sure why it was so bad. It was quite a glancing blow along the wall rather that directly into it...

[Jungles]

GravelBen said:

FourWheelDrift said:

johnph said:

What do V8 Supercars have in the way of side protection?

Usually a lot, the thing is though Aussie V8's are right hand drive and that was a big left hand side hit so I suspect it's not side impact protection but head/helmet against roll cage or raceseat sides that caused the injury. Perhaps he was not wearing a hans deivce too?

Pretty sure they're not allowed to race without hans. It was a big solid hit though, hope he recovers ok.

HANS is mandatory.

Edited by Jungles on Sunday 24th February 09:43

[mark69sheer]

Never been a fan of the Adelaide circuit or indeed any 'street' circuits.

best wishes to the driver..

Edited by mark69sheer on Sunday 24th February 13:11

[lord summerisle]

Jungles said:

GravelBen said:

FourWheelDrift said:

johnph said:

What do V8 Supercars have in the way of side protection?

Usually a lot, the thing is though Aussie V8's are right hand drive and that was a big left hand side hit so I suspect it's not side impact protection but head/helmet against roll cage or raceseat sides that caused the injury. Perhaps he was not wearing a hans deivce too?

Pretty sure they're not allowed to race without hans. It was a big solid hit though, hope he recovers ok.

HANS is mandatory.

Edited by Jungles on Sunday 24th February 09:43

But a HANS is designed to restrain the head in a frontal impact, rather than a side impact - where the seats sides would do more to reduce the head movement.

[Graham]

Ashley Cooper died, a sad time for all involved...

The pickup race had two guys end up in hospital as well...

[Jungles]

Sad.

RIP

[Jim Campbell]

That’s the second driver 2 die in the development series in 3 years. Thats not good enough for a big established series that’s supposed to be world class something has to be done particularly in regards to side protection i bet a side impact like that wouldn’t bother a BTCC car which has a pretty similar apex speed or a cup car which would be faster than a V8 supercar through corners.

Ta

[Civpilot]

Jim Campbell said:

That’s the second driver 2 die in the development series in 3 years. Thats not good enough for a big established series that’s supposed to be world class something has to be done particularly in regards to side protection i bet a side impact like that wouldn’t bother a BTCC car which has a pretty similar apex speed or a cup car which would be faster than a V8 supercar through corners.

Ta

Whilst I agree with your sentiment that things obviously need to be looked at regarding safety I disagree with your implication that the cars are "less safe" than other series. I think at 120mph into a solid concrete wall whilst slightly airbourne a BTCC car would be equally destroyed and the driver would also have serious injuries.

Anyway, all these things are currently mute, the fact is a guy has died, condolences to his family.

[tim the pool man]

Jim Campbell said:

That’s the second driver 2 die in the development series in 3 years. Thats not good enough for a big established series that’s supposed to be world class something has to be done particularly in regards to side protection i bet a side impact like that wouldn’t bother a BTCC car which has a pretty similar apex speed or a cup car which would be faster than a V8 supercar through corners.

Ta

Jumping the gun a bit there Jim. Yes there has been 2 tragic deaths in the series, but in quite different circumstances. The cars do have substantial side protection, and Ashley's car was previously run in the Tier 1 series by Matt Neal, Paul Morris and Fabian Coulthard.
There has to be something unusual in this case, it was a heavy but glancing impact, and on the passenger side of teh car. I don't see how side impact protection could have helped in this case.

[jacobyte]

Generally, after a nasty shunt resulting in a driver's hospitalisation, once they are "stable", one assumes that they are on the road to recovery. That's really gutting.

I didn't know him but my thoughts are with those that were closest to him.

[AMD87]

tim the pool man said:

There has to be something unusual in this case,

people who were at the race are saying that his seat mounts broke, effectively releasing him from secure retension by his seatbelts.

[anonymous-user]

That is tragic news.

[Jim Campbell]

AMD87 said:

tim the pool man said:

There has to be something unusual in this case,

people who were at the race are saying that his seat mounts broke, effectively releasing him from secure retension by his seatbelts.

That would explain it. Still 2 fatalities in 3 years something needs to be done

Ta