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From what I saw on TV, the car seemed to push the wheel through the fence as it rolled and because the car was travelling in the direction along the fence the wheel sheared off and hurtled in a direction along the fence. The marshal seemed to be standing all alone in some sort of access track directly in the path of the wheel, and the camera moved away from him just as he was hit. This was the last set of crash pictures shown on the 6 o'clock news on channel 9. However, one of the spectators there said the wheel came through a gap in the fence - I don't know who is right, but a police investigation has already started.
The shot of Martins crash in 96 was even more astonishing because one of the spectators (or a marshal) actually stuck his head outside the fence to get a better look at Martin's car going past in a barrel roll.
I ask again, what the heck were those people doing there - why were spectators so close to the track ?
By the way, that access track the marshal was standing in seemed to lead to an ara further along the fence where spectators were not allowed, judging from the shots of Martin's crash, so he could actually have been there to stop spectators from going into the corner area. Don't forget, this crash happened in the braking zone before the corner. This could explain why a spectator marshal was there, just doing his job.
Crash, I know what strong mesh fences are, and how they are made - I used to design boulder fences for mountain slopes. We specified a very expensive imported fence which had tripple twist mesh that would not unravel when hit by a boulder rolling down the mountain. I will have to see a good close up picture of this particular mesh before I can make any judgement.
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