???Don Eckel & Mike Saye CRASH at Z-Max???

[Don Eckel 111]

Woodro, although I understand what you are saying, I do believe that there are people out there who truly do care about our safety and well being, in all aspects. Unfortunately, I think they all reside in the middle and not at the top and bottom rungs of the ladder. We are held accountable for our appearance and actions at the track, at what point do they become accountable? Anyway, I'm glad you were OK after your incident also.

Bobby, your analogy of rush hour traffic is exactly why you should have the MOST concentration. There is alot more going on around you to require your attention. And in the case of my incident, neither car was going nearly that fast. I was going maybe 5 MPH and I'll guess at that point Mike was going 30-40 when he hit me. The real problem I have is that after speaking with the turnout worker, it became apparent to me that he knew there was a problem, yet he STILL made the wrong decision. There are alot more of these incidents and near misses than you can imagine, many unmentioned. I'm curious, did you receive or know of any formal training for the job at the turnouts? If not, then what qualifies you or anyone else to be out there with the potential of someones safety in your hands? Its easy to say that its just unfortunate when it's not you.

[Charlie Yannetti]

You hit it on the head Don......... with the key word beng "accountable".......... the NHRA should be held accountable for incidents like this, especially when an accident occurs as a result of an employees actions........ Mr Light's explanation of it being an unfortunate racing incident is a lame attempt at avoiding accountability and is unacceptable........ wonder what his response would be if someone threw an anchor line into the props of his yacht and apologized claiming it to be an unfortunate yachting incident........

Do you think that incidents like this should be brought to the table during the off season by our SRAC reps???........ and would it be out of line to ask for compensation as a result of negligence???........ I think not........

[bobby]

Originally Posted by Don Eckel 111

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Bobby, your analogy of rush hour traffic is exactly why you should have the MOST concentration. There is alot more going on around you to require your attention. And in the case of my incident, neither car was going nearly that fast. I was going maybe 5 MPH and I'll guess at that point Mike was going 30-40 when he hit me. The real problem I have is that after speaking with the turnout worker, it became apparent to me that he knew there was a problem, yet he STILL made the wrong decision. There are alot more of these incidents and near misses than you can imagine, many unmentioned. I'm curious, did you receive or know of any formal training for the job at the turnouts? If not, then what qualifies you or anyone else to be out there with the potential of someones safety in your hands? Its easy to say that its just unfortunate when it's not you.

No we don't have any formal training. In years past we just use to vote we got to guide the cars in, now there is the same person working most of the tracks with that job. It's one that i wouldn't want to have anymore. Did it for one year and didn't want to be responsible for any accidents. Now I just push cars out of the way and roll up parachutes.

Yes, I believe that NHRA needs to do something about that, esp after seeing a coworker guide 2 t/f cars into each other.

My anology about the freeway is that if you are standing between 2 cars and they are coming straight at you, you cannot tell how fast they are going. And you cannot tell who is in front of the other.