Good lord. I just saw the video. I can’t believe it would be that ‘easy’ to leave the track and hit a i-beam (or whatever it was).
i think innsbruck had a couple of fatalities. but they seemed to be outside of the venues, hitting a course groomer or running off into a tree on a training run outside of the actual venue. course, could be wrong.
He hit the track first so I’m not sure if the pillars mattered much after that. If you look at the whole run there are pillars everywhere so anyone leaving the track is doing so at 80-90 mph. Unfortunately, it’s possible to steer into the track just as a car driver can steer into a wall on a curve. The difference is that in a car it’s done at slower speeds with the benefit of a steel cage, seat belts, and air bags.
So sad.
NBC has a high-quality video of the whole run up at [noparse]http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=4d69df22-dc17-4356-8385-b075a080b00a.html#graphic+content+luge+crash+from+start[/noparse] (it might ask you to install Silverlight). It’s not especially graphic visually, but it’s a bit disturbing to hear the “clang” as his head hits the post.
Some commentators said earlier tonight that the track is hard enough for the top 12 athletes, but they really worry about 13 and below. Some of those kids haven’t had much practice at all on that particular track and it’s positively scary to think of them going balls-out on it during the actual races.
I’m shocked that they actually showed what is essentially a real life Faces of Death video. I’m impressed NBC had the balls
They showed it before the opening ceremony?
Georgia isn’t having much Olympic luck lately. They get into a war with Russia right before 2008, now they have someone die right before 2010.
And, at the risk of sounding horrible, I find it someone ironic that someone doing something rather dangerous but probably without the right amount of experience dies on Darwin’s birthday.
See post 24. It’s on their website.
Whose idea was it to put big frigging metal posts beside the track anyhow?
I picture it like this:
IOC official: Such great natural beauty up here in Whistler! But it feels like something is missing…
Corrupt Vancouver politician: Hmm… maybe some big fucking metal posts!
IOC official: Yeah! That’s what we need up in this piece! Big fucking metal posts! That way if a luger goes off the track he’ll bounce off of them like a ragdoll and everyone can have a good laugh! But where are we going to get big fucking metal posts?
Corrupt Vancouver politician: I know a guy… he’s got a good stockpile of them. Only a million bucks a piece!
IOC official: Alright! Buy about a hundred and put them everywhere! I can’t wait to see fools start bouncing off of them!
His dude wasn’t in the right position.
You win some, you luge some.
Not original to me, but I had to pass it on.
Well that was fast… If you can’t be bothered to click the link the IOC officials blame the death completely on the athlete.
The show must go on!
When they crash, luge riders seldom pop off a course entirely. Seems that the designers failed to comprehend the difference between seldom and never. I hope none of the other competitors suffers the same fate.
“there was no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track.”
Except for walls that were not sufficient to contain the person.
Except for a beam that should have not been there.
Truly, that is a show must go on attitude. How very disappointing.
I’ll save a seat for you in hell.
I didn’t think of plexiglass, that would be a pretty cheap fix. At least he would have had a fighting chance and hit a wall at a pretty shallow angle instead of hitting the column squarely.
I was kinda wondering that myself. There’s all kinda of refrigerant pipes running under and along the track and blinds and shades hanging over it. They need to control the sunlight melting the ice or getting in the sliders eyes. I’m guessing that’s what the posts were for, which means they’d have to be next to the track.
I’ve been to the luge tracks in Lake Placid and Salt Lake City. If a guy comes out of the track at 80 mph, he’s gonna hit something. If the posts weren’t there, he’d have hit a satellite truck, or the cooling apparatus, or a bunch of spectators, or just tumble a few hunderd feet over uneven ground, any of which would have been sufficient to mess him up pretty bad. I think the only way to keep the sliders safe is to make sure they don’t come out of the track in the first place. Build higher walls that are even with the sides of the track. Let them slide on something smooth until the come to a stop. Still no fun, but probably the best chance they’ve got.
Now I thought I read somewhere that the guy was ranked in the top 50 in the world. Even granted that the top 50 isn’t the top 10, and that the pool of lugers worldwide isn’t exactly that of soccer players or sprinters, seems to me like lack of experience doesn’t explain it.
I’ve always thought the luge track should be a covered tube. Why not? With plexiglass, they can see into it and the lugers wouldn’t ever go flying out. It doesn’t make any sense