As originally posted by John P. M. Dillon to the Wheel-toWheel list
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Stand
Race Track Safety - a Different Perspective
copyright 1996 John P. M. Dillon
I'm back.
Quite a while ago I was asked why I call this column "Stand." Did it come
from "making a stand," "take a stand," "stand and deliver," "the starter's
stand," "a stand of trees," "holding down the fort," "stand up and be
counted," "pit", "stand guard," or "stand up for what's right"? The answer
is "yes."
Several months back I received e-mail from an eastern race track owner who
expressed concern about track safety. His concerns, however, had no
relation to armco, worker barriers, apex widths, rumble strips,
communications systems, or their ilk. Instead, and I quote, "Ironically,
one of the things that scares me the most is not what happens to the corner
worker while a car zips by at 120 mph, but rather what happens in the paddock."
Hazards in the paddock, often overlooked because the race officials' focus
is trackside, can be substantial. They range from stacks of tires, to
improperly fastened canopies, to tools, to low profile vehicles like
scooters and quads, to air hoses, to fuel.
Throw kids into this mix and you've got a recipe for disaster. As any
parent knows, children are risk multipliers. (Ours are never a problem, of
course--they're always someone else's!) When a dozen bolts hold your engine
together, kids somehow discover the only one that causes everything to collapse.
They're long on enthusiasm and short on attention span, sometimes
responsible and sometimes negligent. Kids can be oblivious to their
surroundings, even with race cars, no matter how loud, fast, heavy, or
brightly painted the sleds may be. Kids also get special protection under
the law in some states. In Arizona, I've been told that if a child is
involved in an accident, the statute of limitations on filing suit doesn't
start counting down until they turn 18.
What follows is a partial list of paddock safety issues, in no particular order.
Trip hazards: Many public works departments define a trip hazard as an
irregularity in a walking surface exceeding one inch in height. Look around
your pit space--how many air hoses, tool boxes, power cords, floor jacks,
and trailer ramps can you spot? The people who keep their areas neat and
organized generally have fewer accidents, but it's the nature of crewing
that you've got to have stuff laying around on a regular basis. I remember
several years ago when Chuck Kevwich had a floor jack snap up split his face
wide open. Now, add to this "danger mix" stacks of tires. If somebody
bumps into a stack and knocks it over, who on the other side will get
smacked with 50 pounds of rubber and wheel? A neighbor's kid?
Refueling: Refueling is an inherently dangerous process. You're dealing
with a volatile fluid that can cause chemical burns. The burns are much
worse when ignited. The SCCA, POC, and other clubs generally prohibit
refueling in the pits. When they make exceptions for their endurance races,
strict safety rules are enforced. These regulations require, for example,
that the driver be out of the car before fueling can commence; no one can
work on the car during refueling; fire protective apparel must be worn by
the refuelers; a fire extinguisher must be available and manned; and so on.
Hot pit safety makes sense--after all, people are in a hurry (that's why
they call it "racing!"), engines, brakes and exhausts are extremely hot (bad
news for gasoline vapors) and competitors are roaring all around you as they
make their own pit stops.
Refueling in the paddock is not risk free, however. Engines, brakes and
exhausts could still be hot. Crew members are usually _not_ safely attired.
Fire bottles may not be in hand, or even nearby. Innocent passers-by could
be endangered in an accident. Children stumble about underfoot. Again.
contrast this with the hot pits situation, where spectators are separated
from crew members, where children aren't allowed near the pit wall, where
pit marshals are trained to handle fire extinguishers, which (not
coincidently) are readily available all along the wall.
Awnings: I followed for several days a "thread" (discussion) on the Wheel
To Wheel (W2W) news group about accidents and injuries relating to canopies.
Last weekend at Buttonwillow, I watched from the starter stand as the tech
inspectors' awning was lifted _above_ the tech trailer and then flipped over
while still in the air. In this case there were several scrutineers to
respond and wrestle the thing back down. Joe Racer, working from the back
of his pickup, may not be so lucky. "Last year at Abilene (the Sunburn
Grand Prix) on Saturday evening I was walking back to my paddock area,"
writes Dave Lapham. "I came across a canopy which had come somewhat apart.
A pipe had come loose and was swinging in the wind, beating against the
windshield of the race car under it." Here only a car was impacted (pardon
the pun).
More serious injuries can occur as well. Brian Kelley related how a large
canopy, attached to a big rig and supposedly "anchored" by several
full-sized nitrogen bottles, nonetheless took flight, launching one of the
bottles on the way. The bottle narrowly missed striking his friend but, he
added, in another case the fellow wasn't so lucky. A Trans-Am crew member
nicknamed "Candy" was bashed into a coma after a flying bottle struck him in
the head. Happily, Candy is recovering now and was reported to have
attended the Detroit Grand Prix.
Another guy was less fortunate, according to another story posted on W2W.
He was caught by a ground level cross beam on a flying awning that launched
him over some power lines and through a particle board wall, the impact
ultimately killing him.
Doc Cobine offered suggestions on how to fasten your awning safely, pointing
yout that you need to fasten it something "REALLY heavy, like your 2500 lb
car, your 3000 lb trailer, and so on. A 50 lb spare tire doesn't cut it."
He added that it would be easy to attach motorcycle tie-downs to the
canopy's poles, then "just snug them to the roll cage each time you come
in." Alternatively, you could "run them to the bottom of the trailer and
your tow vehicle on the other side."
Brian Kelley offered up a similar solution: "Ballast of a few hundred
pounds is not adequate for the larger canopies. Somehow attaching the
canopy to a second parked vehicle (not a F440) would seem to be a solution.
For most teams, welding a couple of plates on the lower brace so that you
could park on it would be trivial and probably solve the problem." [When
granting permission to be quoted, Mr. Kelley added "Assuming you can get the
extra paddock space; generally, you can't."]
I opened this article with a few words from an eastern track owner, so I'll
close it with the same.... "Quads and other [low height profile] tow
vehicles scare me, especially since SCCA racers bring their families for the
weekend.
All of a sudden, the son's bicycle darts out of the tent area into the path....
well, you get the picture." As a track owner, he takes a conscientious
attitude when he says "We just keep trying to predict and then fix before
they happen." As racers, crew members, and race officials, we need to do the
same.
Safety at a race track is essential to preserving the family nature of our
sport. Each of us needs to do our part to insure we and our associates act
in a safe, responsible manner, not just on the track but especially in the
cold pits and paddock as well. As my eastern friend put it, "If we could
just remember what our moms told us: Look Both Ways."
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