Fatal accident at Road Atlanta

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Tue Aug 04, 2015 3:31 pm

Looks like an RX-7 blew it's motor on the back straight of Road Atlanta and put down a good bit of oil. A Mustang hit the oil and hit the wall with the driver's side. It was a DE2 student, driving solo.

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/fatal-acc ... 8663370540

steve remchak · **Posted:** Thu Aug 06, 2015 10:31 am

Hard to read these articles....

There has to be some form of discussion in the classrooms about safety in a street car. Certainly not the "you are going to die" that BMW CCA used to preach in their classrooms, but hopefully this incident will promote an open dialogue.

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Thu Aug 06, 2015 4:39 pm

I think about this sometimes before/after I'm in the right seat of a Green group student.

Many years ago when I was drag racing, they used to base the safety requirements on how fast you went. When I started running sub-12's, I needed a roll bar with side protection and a 5-point harness. If I had ever made it to the 10's (no easy feat in a 1.6L Honda Civic), then I would have needed a cage.

That's not to say that you can't kill yourself or others in a slow car, but the inherent slowness of something like a stock Honda Civic on street tires at VIR means that we never really get into anything at a very scary speed, which is nice when you've got a beginner student behind the wheel. Some of the cars out there though are scary; I saw a new Z06 on slicks in DE1 (beginner group) at a recent NASA event. I think those will hit about 200 MPH.

Of course basing safety gear on lap times would be impractical for an HPDE environment, but sometimes after hurtling around the track in the right seat of a supercar piloted by someone with single-digit hours of seat time, I do think about stuff like that. Then I think about what I have to eat in the bus, because I'm usually hungry.

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Sat Aug 08, 2015 8:50 pm

Roger, I don't worry much about green students, intermediate to advanced are the ones usually fast enough to hurt you. Granted green with a Z06 OR C7 can strike fear in you.

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Sun Aug 09, 2015 11:27 am

Or the guy who shows up with a 420 RWHP Camaro that doesn't stop or handle as well as the Vette but has more HP, lol.

Granted i'm pretty aware of my limits and like to think I handle the car quite well. I always err on the side of caution than trying to hot dog it. That probably doesn't put the instructor at ease though, lol.

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Sun Aug 09, 2015 6:13 pm

420 rwhp is childs play, the last camaro i instructed in had 700rwhp it couldn't do three laps at speed without over heating the transmission and the engine. A drag car maybe, a road course vehicle, not so much. I recently instructed in the 2016 viper acr and that puppy pushes 646hp at 600ftlbs torque. The drivers were automotive journalists most of whom didn't drive very well.....although Randy Pobst and Andy Lally drove very well. lol

clinehall · **Posted:** Sat Aug 29, 2015 7:56 am

On a related subject. I got a call the other day that the family of the instructor that was killed at Summit Point as filed suit against the Driver, the track, NASA, and State Farm. Apparently the instructors their are considered an employee of the track and they are suing State Farm (which was the deceased insurance company) as they are stating they were never offered Un or Underinsured Motorist coverage.

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Sat Aug 29, 2015 8:22 am

clinehall wrote:

On a related subject. I got a call the other day that the family of the instructor that was killed at Summit Point as filed suit against the Driver, the track, NASA, and State Farm. Apparently the instructors their are considered an employee of the track and they are suing State Farm (which was the deceased insurance company) as they are stating they were never offered Un or Underinsured Motorist coverage.

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems that if taken to jury, the track should be exposed to gross negligence by simply allowing a path to an unprotected tree to be traversed by a car...or at least a really good legal team could likely eat that exposure alive. Note there are numerous tracks that still have unprotected tree exposure available (Roebling perhaps has many). In 1980 that might have been considered "normal" but in 2015?

As to the un/underinsured coverage...would it have even mattered (much) since the event occurred on a race track, and the policy would have excluded coverage above a very low max amount anyway?

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Mon Aug 31, 2015 8:38 am

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems that if taken to jury, the track should be exposed to gross negligence by simply allowing a path to an unprotected tree to be traversed by a car...or at least a really good legal team could likely eat that exposure alive.

I agree 100%, but IMO they (plantiffs) are just casting a wide net because they want someone to pay, and it doesn't matter who, or if it's even right.

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Mon Aug 31, 2015 11:08 am

I see potential culpability on every party listed. It's not like they are suing the helmet manufacturer, GM and the tire manufacturer.

clinehall · **Posted:** Mon Aug 31, 2015 8:14 pm

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

As to the un/underinsured coverage...would it have even mattered (much) since the event occurred on a race track, and the policy would have excluded coverage above a very low max amount anyway?

That's an interesting question. If this gets to court some precedents will be set for sure.

michaelsmiller · **Posted:** Sat Sep 05, 2015 6:26 pm

It's pretty clear to everyone that a street car is designed to protect you up to 35 MPH against an immovable object. That's always in the back of my mind when I'm at VIR doing 135. I think that a jury would understand that this is a risky hobbie. My son is a professional sky diver. There is no insurance and nobody ever gets sued because it's inherently dangerous. He has pointed out to me that the death rate for our sport is higher than sky diving.

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