May 24, 2010

Never Take Safety for Granted. (Warning, very graphic)

Squint a little and it could be Lauda at the Nürburgring all over again, and like that day in '76, only the intervention of fellow racers prevented a Roger Williamson like tragedy in front of the main grandstands.

Brno, Czech Republic, Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo race. Giorgio Bartocci loses control of his Lambo coming onto the front straight and slams right on the end of the pit wall. The car disintegrates and catches on fire.



What happens next is something that should never happen at any race: nothing.

Safety personnel wonder aimlessly around the car with pathetically underpowered extinguishers. Seemingly clueless to the fact a man was inside the car, they seem preoccupied with extinguishing the flames on the asphalt. Eventually you see two frantic men jump into action and finally extract the driver. They were Fabio Babini, his co-driver and a Pirelli test engineer, wearing his driving suit tied around his waist and Manfred Fitzgerald from Lamborghini in shirtsleeves who finally rips the door off the car and drags Bartocci to safety.

It's clear from the video track personnel was clueless in even the most basic of rescue procedures and some had non working fire extinguishers. This happened at an FIA sanctioned event and I would hope calls for a full investigation by a body which prides itself on safety.

The driver is still in intensive care, off a respirator and awake. He suffered broken ribs and a broken leg and has 2nd degree burns on 40% of his body, but happy to be alive!




Omnicorse.it has an interview with Babini about the incident, in Italian but I can translate it later if anyone wants...
end of post

22 comments:

  1. Wow! what a bunch of incompetent numbnuts. Their clueless nature and cowardice almost cost a racer his life.

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  2. It infuriates me that they were wasting extinguishers putting out the fire on the asphalt on the other side of the car!...

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  3. While the track safety was shoddy I wonder how much blame has to go the car builder as well? While it was a hard impact it didnt seem hard enough to completely destroy a fuel cell. Also there must have been some sort of seat/restraint/cage failure if the driver was hanging half way out of the car.

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  4. Wow that's pretty terrible. What a poorly designed pit opening there...

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  5. If they were using Hydrogen made from water on the fly, then all that would have spilled was water... no fire, no mess, except salvage parts

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  6. Must agree, extremely shoddy work from the rescue teams.

    From what i can see, the cage is still intact (Compare it to the crash Solberg had in WRC Germany a few years back. THAT cage was broken.) and the entire front end was just toast. No way a fuel cell can take a hit like that and stay in tact.

    It was a bad angle that he hit with as well.

    Oh, and if they used hydrogen, we would all be dead. Hydrogen bomb, DEAD (Yes, that is a joke.)

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  7. Reminds me of Tetsuya Ota at Fuji in the 90's. Scary it could happen again. Glad it looks like he'll be ok after some time for recovery,

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  8. What concerns me is that this is Brno. Hardly a sleepy country that gets 1 race every 10 years!

    I can imgaine serious implications for the Czech circuit. Maybe even as far as no more FIA events!

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  9. @ Rahul I think some things about the rescue are evident from the video, doing any sort of analysis on the car's integrity would be both impossible and foolish with out a whole lot more information.

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  10. Those videos show that safety crew has ZERO instinct to save someone's life. All they're thinking about is getting that fire out. Who cares, let it burn. Just get the damned victim out first!

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  11. Did they even know someone was in the car? Look at that fool trying to spray on the asphalt from the pit fence.. I am glad that someone took the extigusher from him..

    As Anon said; Tatsuya Ota all over again.. Terrible!

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  12. recent video example of what a competent safety crew looks like
    http://coldtrackdays.blogspot.com/2010/05/video-all-fired-up-at-nurburgring.html

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  13. Wow.. heights of idiocy! Makes me wonder if the safety training these marshals or firemen get are adequate enough for real world situations. That too at an FIA event. I thought FIA cared better about safety. Jean Todt are you listening?

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  14. The worst part about that video was watching the driver/pit crew who ran over to help. You could see how horrified and frustrated they were with how long it took to get him out. Much as this is a freak accident the responce looked like it was from the 1970s...

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  15. @ Ac,Henrik Bergau : It is apparent from the actions of the guy trying to save the asphalt from fire that 1) he has probably had little or no training and 2) he is scared that the car might blow up hollywood style.. ( That may sound like a joke but it is not)
    These guys knew that the driver was still in the car fighting for his life, makes their behavior all the more shocking and irresponsible.
    Good luck it happened on the start finish straight, anywhere else on the track and the poor driver might have been history..

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  16. 73 not 76 on the Williamson tradegy

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  17. did you see the guy spraying his extinguisher from the fence and another worker ran up and grabbed it out of his hands to put it to good use.

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  18. 1:20 seconds after the crash he finally gets pulled out. The first safety person wastes 45 seconds spraying non critical aspects of the fire.

    Some of the 100 M they got needs to be spent on training because this dude was either clueless or a coward.

    As mentioned already, if this happens anywhere else on track, this poor fellow is dead.

    I cant believe he lived.

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  19. I always thought Lamborghinis sucked before. Now I know.

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  20. where is the graphic part nigger?

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  21. This is very bad accident in very bad pathetic situation. As Giorgio Bartocci loses control of his Lambo coming onto the front straight and slams right on the end of the pit wall.

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  22. Keep in mind safety crew have to think not only about the car that is wrecked, but the other cars on track that may or may not be at speed. So the guy running out risking his life to put the fire out is risking his life to save the life of the racer. Anyone who steps out onto the track to a burning race car is a hero. What concerns me is that the safety crew and fire truck pulls up about 2 minutes later.

    Also - the car t boned the pit wall! Its a testament to cars today that he is even breathing.

    Looking at the track there appear to be several skid marks from prior people loosing control there... I wonder if the ttrack pit entrance should be looked at or moved back some?

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