It does appear that the point at which the accident occurred coming out of the last sharp bend was indeed a place where a luger would be likely to carom out of control, if you look at the graphics of the lay of the course.
And those padded wraps they’re now installing look about as helpful as adding a layer of bubble wrap.
Every. Single. Luge. Track. has those supports. YouTube it. What do you think holds up all that ice and bobsleds? Spit, duct tape and positive thoughts?
You know, looking at it, it appears he took a high line coming out of the turn, and realized that if he continued his present line, then he was going to sail off the embankment. He overcompensated, and jammed his sled right into the foot of the track wall of the straightaway, which caused the accident.
Most of those crashes don’t show similar supports, and even in the cases (see 1:31) where their are supports, they aren’t nearly as close to the track as at Whistler. This is the fastest track in the world, and I place where, I presume, you might want to design a bit more room for mistakes into the course, unless, I dunno, you want some poor guy to spread his brains all over the place.
You think being 20 feet further away is going to make a difference at 90mph? If there’s an issue with the track, it’s the height of the walls not the position of the supports.
Well, I for one am an expert on luge track design and have run the models and done the engineering, and I can tell you that with my intimate knowledge of the safety, structural, and athletic requirements for a luge track, that the track was built unsafely.
Today on CTVBC they had footage of world-class lugers who tested the track, and aired their comments. One of them (might have been the American) said, ‘That track is going to kill somebody.’
Do you really think the posts being 20 feet away from the track would have made no difference in the crash?
Added; The walls are of course far too short, but the posts are a Major compounding danger.
I already mentioned this in another thread. That was a joke putting padding on a steel beam that someone hits at 90 mph.
He lost control and bounced off of solid ice at 90 mph. he was toast from that point forward. If they had a wall covering the beams then the camera would have recorded a rag doll bouncing off ice and wood until something vaguely resembling a person slid past the finishing line.
As far as the statement goes, nobody should die driving to work or paddling a canoe on vacation but it happens all the time.
There is a problem here and that is the construction of ever faster luges at each Olympic. Maybe they should have double eliminations starting with a slower course and working up to the faster course for those more experienced.
The world’s best luger crashed much higher on the course where we was going slower on a less hard part of the course. Stop trying to blame the guy who died. Every luge course ever designed must be designed that people are going to crash. The designers have to design it so that it can contain the crash without flinging the crasher into a steel beam.
The beam doesn’t matter if you bounce 6 feet laterally after hitting solid ice at 90 mph. This person came out of the turn too soon and there is nothing that can be done to mitigate the event.
Either way, it seems to have been the track design.
I’m no luge expert, but I’ve watched a lot of luge, as it’s one of my favorite winter sports, and this isn’t the first time I’ve seen a luger leave the track - while it’s not common, it’s certainly not unheard of for sliders to bounce out.
I’ve probably seen it happen half a dozen times on TV - most times, the luger gets up and limps away with assistance, sometimes they need to be put on a stretcher. But so far as I know, none of the similar crashes I’ve seen have been fatal. So to say that someone’s “toast” bthe second they bounce out, or that luging is a dangerous sport anyway, and that it’s not worth the basic effort to prevent a fatality is. . . well, I don’t know what to call it. Since someone is dead, let’s start with crass, and take it from there. I mean, when professionals are calling the track unsafe, what does the opinion of a bunch of message board posters count?
Anyway, to me, looking at the video (which I’ll never watch again) it didn’t seem the impact with the side wall is what killed him, nor was it bouncing off the top of the opposite wall - sure he was going 90mph, but the impact was largely angular, and certainly not head-on. The worst impact seemed to be caused by flying into those foot-thick heavy beams like some horrible human pachinko ball - that’s your perpendicular impact right there. The designers should have seen this coming, and never designed the track with such heavy supports to begin with - this track seemed over-engineered for speed, with little thought for safety.
I’m content as long as Saakashvili stays this sane, I was waiting for him to blame the “accident” on Russia somehow ;).
Maybe that statement of his was a bit too general, but in this specific case, the outcome of the accident could have been mitigated rather easily by some simple track safety measures. Also, IIRC, this track is above the Olympic speed recommendations. Why?
It seems that bigger, better, faster is de rigueur for each subsequent Olympics - I get that each host country wants to outdo the previous ones, but this track was ridiculous. I’d prefer a slower than normal track with some challenging turns and straights over a super-fast track that even lugers (widely considered the adrenaline-junkies of the gravity racing world) say is too dangerous.
Also, specific to the OP - while Saakashvili was generalizing in saying “no sports accident should be fatal” I think it’s clear if you read the entire article (a linky would have helped) that his concern was over the fact that lugers had raised concerns about the track, and nothing was done to improve safety until someone was killed. Which to me seems a perfectly acceptable attitude.
Errrrrr…I missed this on the first read through.
Plywood and padding? he was doing 90mph I somehow don’t think that’s going to help.
As for Diana, the post was incidental. The car did it’s job of saving the occupants, it
crumpled as it should. The only reason she died is because the car was travelling far too fast and 3 of the 4 passengers didn’t wear their seat belts.
Only one person survived, care to guess which one?
“No sports mistake is supposed to be fatal,” is overstating.
“This sports mistake shouldn’t have been fatal,” however, would’ve been right on par with what’s being said by the other lugers, the other coaches, everyone except the Canadians who designed the course and are coming under fire for not letting other teams have adequate training time on it, and the Olympics officials who needed to do their best to keep this poor kid’s death from derailing their multi-billion dollar endeavor.
When the best luger in the world says that the course is dangerous, when one of the female lugers (who was practicing on the course where the men are now competing) says that the lugers were being used as crash test dummies, I’m going to believe them that there were design flaws in the course.
As a side note, I don’t think the OP wrote his post to have his prejudices about people “from that part of the world” challanged.