Dude, maybe a guard would have been good?

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[Talonman]

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/video/index.html?assetid=3350f67a-7694-4f9b-830f-09d957013d41

[rx7racerca]

Doh! And OW! Nothing like flying into a metal post at 130kmh to ruin your day.

I was expecting something involving a security guard - lol.

[Syritis]

graphic content. probably not safe for kids.



it is kind of a freak accident but you would think that anything involving speeds that high, they wouldn't install steel poles near by.

[lophilip1980]

From what I hear those poles weren't installed until recently. A really poor choice to installed unpadded poles.

[rx7racerca]

I hadn't realized earlier the accident had in fact resulted in the death of the athlete. Very sobering.

[cloud7]

I think some netting or measures intended to keep the luger inside the track should have been used, not only at this location but at all curve exits at the very least.  Padding the poles would help but probably not much in this case.

[lophilip1980]

I think some netting or measures intended to keep the luger inside the track should have been used, not only at this location but at all curve exits at the very least.  Padding the poles would help but probably not much in this case.

Not too sure, but the track events might be cancelled in this Olympics.

[Talonman]

The choice of the poles is an epic fail IMO.

Don't these people have some sort of sim program or some common sence, like come on no fence and poles really?


This and the weather is goingt to make these games a very uphill battle.

[Spence]

There was some speculation within the IOC to cancel the sliding events at the WSC, and bring them to calgary, as the track, and the incident, are currently under investigation.

[RSX-TACY]

Oh wow.  My first time seeing somebody fly off the track like that.  I definitely agree anything would've helped whether it be netting or a fence.

[milesmcewing]

At the risk of speaking as someone who has 'been there, done that', I too came out of the track, waaaay back in 1985. Instead of head first though, I hit feet first, which broke both of my legs in seven places and compressed my spine pretty good.

While the pole may seem to be in a very poor place, you would have a hard time predicting/simulating the outcome of the driver error that caused the crash. This type of accident happens quite regularly, it is caused by being 'too late' in the corner, and then dropping at the end, I was very surprised to see the bounce that the athlete got off the inside wall, causing him to eject the track, from the speed and angle, it does not look like any padding would have solved the issue, maybe some form of catch fencing may have helped but it is speculation now.

Calgary has a very similar area, by the junior start, where if you were very late in the Kreisel, you could potentially have the same issue, I have seen a hundred accidents in that location, but none having the same bounce.

We had a student film crew go to Lake Placid, in the early 80's and film a bunch of training runs, there is probably 20 crashes in the collection, of the same type.

It is unfortunate that they have moved the start down, in a knee-jerk effort to control the situation.

Some of the tracks in Europe don't even have inside walls! you end up in the forest, or even someones back yard when it goes wrong

Just my 2 cents.

[rx7racerca]

Hey Miles, good to hear from you, and from someone who's 'been there, done that'. The knee jerk reaction isn't really surprising - the athletes don't seem to like it (some of the women especially were complaining, as their start has been moved to where the <15s start, which has a slow corner right out of the start. But I suppose the IOC doesn't want to have direct comparisons between the men and the women, now that the men's start has been moved down to the womens original one.