Not that it matters much, but per later reports, the guy who was killed is 20, not 17.
Yeah, I don’t follow any form of racing so to me it just seems insane that on a night race on a dirt track a guy in a black race suit is running around on the track screaming and pointing at people. That just seems like madness, I’m not sure at what speed these “sprint” cars go, but I know that even at like 60-70 mph which is normal highway speed the time to react to say, a deer that jumps out in front of you is very short–enough that many people simply will hit the deer.
Not knowing enough about race cars, the video I’ve seen makes it look like Tony Stewart’s car is simply going around the curve, and then when it collides with Ward it “jerks” probably from the impact of hitting what I guess is a normal weight adult male, and probably Stewart himself jerking the steering wheel I would guess in shock from the impact. I don’t know if Stewart could have seen the guy or not, but it didn’t look like to me it was intentional in any way.
Tony is an experienced driver. He knew what he was doing. He purposely drove closer to Ward (Of course he could see him!) trying to escalate the incident. And escalate it did.
Two hot-headed morons doing moronic things.
I watched the video and I don’t think it’s fair to say he “ran over” the guy.
It was a lot closer to “he sideswiped the guy”.
But it was so fast, I believe it would be impossible to claim there was any intention to harm the guy.
The cars were traveling so fast. Any contact between a car and a person was bound to cause great injury to the person.
For people who can’t see the video, it’s probably good to say these were not full sized cars. I think you call them “carts”. My guess is they are about half the size of a regular NASCAR car. I wish I knew what the real name of these kinds of cars are.
Sprint cars.
I would guess he lost his temper and then lost his head.
Thank you.
Sounds like you have a lot of facts the rest of us are missing. Could you link us to this source please.
Do these cars have race cameras?
I saw the video and it sure looked like a Darwin moment. But the moment he started walking across the track, they should have stopped all the cars immediately.
For anyone who may not know what The Darwin Awards are:
The Darwin Awards are a tongue-in-cheek honor, originating in Usenet newsgroup discussions circa 1985. They recognize individuals who have supposedly contributed to human evolution by self-selecting themselves out of the gene pool via death or sterilization by their own (unnecessarily foolish) actions.
What is the official penalty for stepping into the track like that (assuming he survived)
Is there one?
13 turned out to be an unlucky number for that fool.
I think you are being a little nitpicky with the wording. Neither term has any legal weight. I think they called it that simply to differentiate it from a regular motor vehicle collision investigation. It differs from state to state but most motor vehicle laws are not applicable on private property.
Do they? Serious question, do drivers in this particular motorsport make a habit of leaping out of their cars after a crash and go raging on drivers they think caused the crash?
I can sort of understand more why he did it if there’s been a culture of it happening before
“Habit” is probably too strong a word, but, yes, it happens. I remember one time seeing a NASCAR driver throw his helmet at the car he blamed for wrecking him as it came around again.
Teutron: It is quite common for confrontations to happen on the track.
Yes, it happens a lot. If you watch that video (which I don’t advise) you’ll see that no one in the crowd shouts “Holy crap! That dude got out of his car!” Or: “Holy crap!, that guy is angrily confronting an approaching car!”
Anyone stupid enough to walk out onto the track is destined to come to a violent end. I can’t imagine that it is “quite common” for drivers to exit their cars and walk out into the middle of the track; if it were there would be a lot more of these kind of “accidents”. Suicidal.
Question from a non-racing fan: Is it normal for drivers to do something like this on the night before a NASACAR race? it seems like . . . I don’t know, like an NFL guy playing in a Park District game on Saturday night.
And if it is normal, why?
Hopefully, there will be some rules made regarding leaving your car and walking on the track during a race. It seems like such an obvious thing that a rule wouldn’t be necessary, but we’ve seen otherwise.