4 killed at Tenn. Cars for Kids accident

[turbojimmy]

Totally senseless. Of course you can watch the video and see how stupid it was, but it was the 18th year they had done this without incident. I'm thinking the driver either got carried away showboating or there was some sort of malfunction with the car.

We've attended organized drag races in the Poconos that use an airport runway. People line both sides of the track with nothing between them and the cars but 50 feet of grass and CAUTION tape. Watching the video makes me shudder now. Didn't seem like a stupid idea at the time. It was a charity event, too, but the organizers quit doing it last year. Maybe they were afraid of the same thing?

Jim

 

[GSX-PKV]

Sad to say, people don't realize how dangerous something is until after a tragedy happens. I always fear that at the GS Nationals, where they let people sit and stand on the inside of the fence a few feet ahead of the starting line, so they can take pictures, is an accident waiting to happen.

 

[Bent6]

This tragedy occurred in my hometown. They have been holding this event for 18 years. This is a charity event for disabled children nationwide. They have raised up to $200k in the past few years. I have said for years that the burnouts during the parade were dangerous for the spectators. I was always concerned about the average redneck in his hot rod who wasn't accustomed to doing burnouts losing control and hitting spectators due to inexperience and/or the lack of guardrails. I never imagined anything like this happening. People have often wondered why I didn't enter any of my cars or my race car in this event - this is just one of the reasons. There have been race cars doing big burnouts thru 2nd gear for a few years now. I have always said they were idiots and someone was going to get hurt. This was a 2000hp+ pro-mod car - this guy was a professional with over 20years experience - he should have known better. It's one thing to make a little tire smoke for the crowd - if you haven't seen the footage, this guy pulled second gear! City streets have grease, oil, rocks, etc., aren't flat, and are greasy in the afternoon heat - put a 2000hp slick tired car on that and you are definitely going to have control issues. I am sick for the persons involved and for the fact that this will probably be seen as another black eye for drag racing by the uninformed.

Please pray for the people who lost their lives and the ones who were injured. Most of these people were teenagers from 14-20 years of age. There are 6 people dead now and 20 more injured, some of which may still die. They were just wanting to see the parade of cars and had no idea their lives would be in danger. I also would like everyone to pray for the driver. He may be an idiot but it certainly was an accident and I can't imagine having to live with that. Don't take your loved ones for granted - you never know when tragedy may strike!

 

[Dusty Bradford]

We heard about this at our local race this weekend. The info we got from a local guy who crews for an ADRL pro-mod was that this was a planned exhibition and the throttle stuck.

Sad news for the spectators, our thoughts are with the victims.

 

[SilverSleeper]

The info we got from a local guy who crews for an ADRL pro-mod was that this was a planned exhibition and the throttle stuck.

Not very well planned. All one has to do is watch those shows on TV where things go wrong in front of the camera to know what is possible. It's a racecar, purpose built for the track. Thats where it belongs. It's like taking a "tamed" lion out of its cage and letting people pet it. Sure its tame now, but one bad move by someone, and all heck breaks loose. You wanna show off the car, fine...put it on a trailer, or tow it. I don't care if it was John Force behind the controls. Things like that get outta hand real quick. Cars in parades are always a gamble. A friend of my fathers has cars he drives specifically for parades and shows. You rarely get them out of first at the speeds the parades go. If anything happens, at 4 mph, you can likely bring the problem into check before anything happens. He had his throttle stick on him once, luckily he was doing like 3 mph and just shut it off. I think the promoters are partly to blame. If you put on a show, and someone gets hurt through your negligence, you are to blame. If they wanted to do a burnout in the middle of a city street, with people around, they should have taken the needed safety precautions. (Which, considering everything involved, I don't think you could safely pull something like that off.) Its just sad that it had to cost some bystanders their life to show what can happen. Sometimes lessons learned come at a high cost.

 

[chevyt454]

Hopefully they'll take more precautions

 

[MDLost1@aol.com]

At our track MIR budds creek and around southern maryland many flags are at half mast this week in memory of the victims. This is a tragic accident, I couldnt even finish watching the video. Dont let ignorance get in the way of intelligence.

 

[UNGN]

We have 1 mile solo drag races in Nebraska every August. The first year they had the event, an idiot old man (I think he was 78) went flying into the pit lane/turn around area at over 120 mph in an old Ford Pickup (with a build 460)

I was the first car in line and saw him coming down the road at us and yelled back to everyone to look out. People were diving out of the way when he went past me 3 foot away at over 100. After he got it stopped, there was a crowd of racers ready to pull him out of his truck and beat him senseless.

The Sheriff stepped in and told the guy to pack up his crap and get out of the county and never come back.