Big Bend, WI (June 8, 2010) – Had some time to get my thoughts together regarding the frightening Simona de Silvestro crash last Saturday night at the very fast Texas Motor Speedway.
Thankfully I was not able to watch the race live as I would have been as upset as some of her crew members appeared to be. The national media and message boards have all weighed in, their opinion of the incident is not good. I agree.
As my friend e-mailed to me, “it looked like a scene from a Formula One race in 1970.” As they say, you can protest and lament a situation, but show a video or picture and it’ll carry more impact. The video of an Indy Car on fire for an extended period of time is something we’ve haven’t seen in awhile, nor do we want to again.
As my colleague, James Black from his 16th & Georgetown blog wrote, “59.65 seconds, according to my stopwatch, was the amount of time from the moment the yellow flag dropped to the point Simona De Silvestro was pulled from her burning Dallara on Saturday night.”
The brevity of the accident was such the IndyCar Series issued a statement regarding the events at TMS which can be seen at the end of this column.
The first rescuer arrived to assist Simona, seven seconds after the truck stopped. My biggest criticism is the one rescuer that stayed with the truck to assist feeding the hose instead of assisting rescuer No. 1 with the driver. Yes, that was his assignment.
Secondly, it took too much time to charge the fire hose. In my opinion, they should have attacked the fire with the bottles to knock the fire down enough to rescue the driver. A ready-to-go pressurized system was needed. The NHRA Safety Safari will have water spraying on the fiery car before the truck is stopped. Imagine if that car was upside down. Randy Bernard, get the system, talk to Randy Robbins at NHRA safety.
I’ve heard several criticisms regarding the second truck and where it parked. Remember the truck is parked in turn two and cannot enter the track until released by race control. The second truck was parked safely and usually is not permitted to reenter the racing surface. A heavily banked track like Texas makes it more troublesome. But, the second truck arrived 47 second after the yellow light came on. Seems too long. However, in their defense, there were 23 cars on the track, the track is quite large at one and half miles and there is a speed factor of the racecars on the track.
Furthermore, track safety. There were reports that track safety crew were mixed in with the regular Holmatro Safety Team. There are good track crews and there are very good ones. The Texas crew seems to be bearing much of the criticism. Mr. Eddie Gossage crowing about “Tradition Restored” all weekend and putting up “Tradition Restored” billboards in Indianapolis which appeared to be rubbing it in the Milwaukee Mile’s face perhaps should had focused more on track safety training?. I’ll take the Milwaukee Mile track safety crew and their 50-year tradition of being one of the best over Mr. Gossage’s crew.
The Holmatro track safety crew and the track’s crew is trained in various scenarios, including the one they encountered. When you have an equipment failure like this crew encountered, the time to counter and correct is virtually nil, thus causing the ‘Keystone Kops’ situation. One safety crew members responsibility is the driver, the following three were organized as one lead person on hose, one to feed the hose, one to charge (fill with water) the hose. In hindsight, one should had grabbed the water extinguisher quicker, however, they only tried to correct the hose charging for 16 seconds before going for the back-up extinguisher.
As someone who was a practicing EMT for close to ten years as well as working on a track crew for the Badger Midget Auto Racing Association and the World of Outlaws, I do not have the experience as the Holmatro track safety crew whom I respect. However I have seen my share of tight situations on and off the track. It’s easy to put yourself and the patient in a vulnerable situation when you have an equipment failure. However you must react and react quickly. This crew did not and luckily the driver was not injured more. The League will correct as their statement reads below.
The CART Safety Team (1980’s & 1990’s) and the IndyCar Series are the leaders in motorsports safety. They need to make sure they continue to be.
The IndyCar Series issued a statement regarding the events at TMS Saturday night.
The Indy Racing League, the sanctioning body of the IZOD IndyCar Series, issued the following statement today regarding the response to the oil fire in Simona de Silvestro’s car during Saturday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway:
First and foremost, we make the safety of our competitors a priority when on the track. The primary hose on the series’ safety truck malfunctioned, so the safety team had to go to the backup of the bottles. All equipment is checked prior to going on track before every race. We are examining why the hose malfunctioned to ensure this equipment failure will not happen again.
Our Safety Team consists of approximately 24 highly-trained safety personnel with a minimum of 14 attending each event – 2 trauma physicians, 3 paramedics and 9 firefighters/EMTs. Team members have an average of 20 years of experience in their respective areas. The safety team is recognized for its high standards and high performance and this problem will be addressed.
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