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Re: Real TV autocross accident clip

To: autox@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Real TV autocross accident clip
From: Karl Witt <witt@mediaone.net>
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 15:30:53 -0400
another story regarding this (don't know who the author is):

 > Ok gang, let me give a little background info on this clip. This accident
 > happened last year during our annual Corvette Caravan to the Corvette Museum
 > in Bowling Green Kentucky. An autocross course was setup on a small section
 > of parking lot at the Corvette assembly plant by a few of the local Corvette
 > clubs. This was a Saturday and Sunday event. And I had every intentions of
 > running both days since they said we would probably be able to get 6 or more
 > runs in each day. I actually ran the course on Saturday. This accident
 > happened on Sunday.
 > After walking the course I could clearly tell that the course they set up
 > was to large for the lot space and set too close to the curbs. It was easy
 > to see that a novice could get into trouble rather easily. I made two runs
 > on the course and decided that I wanted no part of this particular
 > autocross. There were three main reasons. One, was that a few of the course
 > workers were sitting down at their stations! The second was that the
 > sweeping turn before the slalom had a patch of oil that couldn't be avoided
 > the way they had the course set up. No amount of kitty litter (or whatever
 > it is they used) seem to clean it up. Every time I came through that turn I
 > would get squirrelly going into the slalom and have to slow down to keep
 > from losing control (oil on my tires?). The third was that the slalom was
 > setup parallel to the curb and maybe a car length and a half away from the
 > curb. The blue vette in the clip lost control midway through this slalom
 > section,  jumped the curb and hit the worker who, according to spectators I
 > had asked that witnessed it first hand, had been sitting in his folding
 > chair and was trying to get up and out of the way when he got hit.
 > Anyway, I decided to go and a least watch the Sunday autocross before I left
 > to come home and I must have arrived at the site maybe a minute or two after
 > the incident and a few minutes before the paramedics arrived. The worker was
 > unconscious but still breathing. From the video it looks as though he was
 > already standing but I think if you look closely you will see what I think
 > is a red folding chair go flying in the air. Still no real sure if he was
 > actually sitting, I can only go by what I was told by a few people at the
 > site.

Some notes:
1) dunno if i believe the oil bit
2) it IS a chair that goes flying with the worker...once you know what it 
is, there's no question.

Karl


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