Tragedy strikes in Tennessee....involving drag car

[Jean]

From - http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread/2016486

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/....html
Dragster spins into crowd, kills 4 - CNN.com


Discuss. I can't believe they let people stand so close on each side...but I don't know the details...

[Silence*]

I herd that 6 people died on the local news last night.

[Maluco]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvjHEgo8I10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soxtQ2tMTf4

I mean come on, seriously, it looks like this took place in a third world country. What kind of safety officials would allow people to just line up like this unprotected? Not to mention allow a dragster to fly down some sub-par condition municipal street. Can anyone say class-action?

[browntown]

Ummm, don't stand on the side of the road during a drag show. I suppose people need to be saved from themselves and prohibited from getting that close, but c'mon --- drag cars wreck -- it happens, put some space between you and them. It's similar to all the crazy people who stand 2 inches from a corner apex in rally races.

[Jean]

Ummm, don't stand on the side of the road during a drag show. I suppose people need to be saved from themselves and prohibited from getting that close, but c'mon --- drag cars wreck -- it happens, put some space between you and them. It's similar to all the crazy people who stand 2 inches from a corner apex in rally races.

Atleast there are trees there to save spectators in wrc, not a lot of thought went into this imho.

[Jscotty]

Along with the dumbing down of society I think that we tend to not realize what is dangerous. When we see a professional do something, automatically we think that we can do it too.. but if we are not aware of the potential danger then we are likely to get hurt.

I have stood beside cars during a drag race but only from a safe distance to where I can quickly escape if there is a problem, however, if you let a bunch of average spectators stand out there in "la-la-land" with their baby strollers, balloons, and pets, nobody is going to sense that this is a dangerous situation that is about to take place.

And I agree that somewhere between the driver/owner of the car and the city, someone had a responsibility to keep the crowd at a safe distance. Or at least the driver should have had enough sense to drive the car slowly and just rev the engine. That in and of itself would have been exciting.

[atomic]

Yeah it was a very stupid stunt that went horribly wrong. And last I heard it was up to 7 deaths and 20 injured

[SnowFiend]

i can't believe they would actually do something like that.

[mtechnik]

I was gonna post this yesterday when I saw it on CNN.

In referencing to what JScotty was saying about society dumbing down, once commenting honestly people say that one is being insensitve but hey..

Like the car crash that killed those teens when they hit a stationary trains while joyriding a van. NOW that was something. A father was all emotional and his voice was raised.

With these things it's sad cause it was someones, daughter,sister etc. (most of the victims were girls according to the CNN article i subsequently read) who lost a life. Then there's the discussion and people resort to blaming.

[RobertK]

WTF was the city thinking? WTF was the driver thinking?

I find it hard to believe that any person in authority over this event with 40k-60k around thought that this would be a good idea with people standing on the side of the road.

[s0urce]

Darwin called this "Thinning the herd"

[e30prideTN]

It's sad...one girl had just walked out from Sonic (where she worked) to watch and she was one that died.

And now they're bringing up the fact that the driver has had previous driving offenses which was almost 10 years ago. I sure hope they don't try to charge him.

Like I said, it's sad but how fucking dumb can you be to stand by the road with no barriers.

[redhatpat]

...And now they're bringing up the fact that the driver has had previous driving offenses which was almost 10 years ago. I sure hope they don't try to charge him.

Why not? If it's too dangerous to do on public streets at any other time of day, what makes it safe during a parade?

If someone told him it's okay to go ~50mph in his drag car in a parade, does that mean he has no responsibility in this? It's freaking obvious that's a dangerous thing to do, his common sense should have told him to keep it slow in case something goes wrong.

There's a lot of blame to spread around, the cops who organized this disaster, the driver who went way beyond a "reasonable" exhibition burn out, and the spectators who didnt have two brain cells to rub together who thought this was safe.

Stupid - all around!

[Jscotty]

Yeah.. stupid all around but it is up to the professionals to protect the public from themselves in situations like this. Granted I think that we have too many labels on stuff that should be common sense- Coffee cups should not have to inform us that the liquid inside is hot nor should a label on a box of steak knives us that warns us that this device contains sharp edges.

Last fall at the county fair there was one of those circus acts where the guy swallows swords, juggles torches that are on fire, and blows lighter fluid out of his mouth to make himself breathe fire like a dragon, etc. and it was an accident waiting to happen. There was no fire extinguisher in the immediate proximity of the guy and the crowd was very close to him.

All I could think was what would happen if he dropped a sword or set the grass on fire or if he accidentially set someone on fire. And even though nobody got hurt, someone should have roped off the area so that the crowd wouldn't get but so close to the guy.

[Maluco]

Yeah.. stupid all around but it is up to the professionals to protect the public from themselves in situations like this. Granted I think that we have too many labels on stuff that should be common sense- Coffee cups should not have to inform us that the liquid inside is hot nor should a label on a box of steak knives us that warns us that this device contains sharp edges.

This is only to offset liability and therefore avoid possible litigation. I don't really think it's there to actually tell people sharp things are sharp and therefore cut or really hot liquids are really hot and therefore scald. This situation that took place is ignorance and inconsideration at it's worse. I can't even imagine how those who lost their loved ones or those injured feel. My prayers go out to all involved.