Police investigate Crash at Levels raceway

[nomad_n]

This is scary when the police are invovled:



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Science » Environment »


Police investigate Timaru crash death



NZPA

Last updated 12:03 14/02/2010
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The accident is believed to have happened on the first lap of the first race of the day. The red marker shows the location, just after the 's' bend following the grid area.

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Police are investigating the death of a prominent Timaru classic car racer and businessman following a smash at Timaru International Motor Raceway on Friday.
Dave Brown, 59 was killed when his car crashed in the first race of a classic car meeting.
It is understood that Brown was on his first lap when his car ran off the track on an S-bend and smashed into a wall of tyres.
He died later in hospital.
Police confirmed today an investigation was underway.
MotorSport New Zealand president Steven Kennedy said staff at the track had been offered support and he would not comment further until reports on the incident had been reviewed.
"It's always traumatic, it's horrible when it happens," he said.
- With Timaru Herald
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[BlueBlood]

I think you will find it is standard procedure for the police to investigate any death in a case like this.

If no evidence of foul play or negligence is found, they will refer the case to the coroner for completion.

[NewsStalker]

As said - when a fatality occurs, this is normal practice. Just be thankful it wasn't Italy (recall the bro-ha-ha over Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna's deaths...)

[mountainstar]

I believe in an earlier article the family believed a medical issue was at cause.

[PVDA]

Normal for Police to investgate serious sporting injuries that could result in death. Report is then presented to the Coroner and the usual inquest process is followed although if it's pretty obvious what happened it might not get to Public hearings.

[NewsStalker]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

I believe in an earlier article the family believed a medical issue was at cause.

Still a normal practice until the cause of death has been established.

[Falcadore]

Doesn't even have to be a fatality. If the medical personnel at the track push a proverbial 'serious injury' button they come a runnin' and shut the meeting down.

I was at a meeting at national meeting Eastern Creek when an open wheeler backflip triggered a police investigation. Only lasted a couple of hours when the driver was quickly prononunced not actually seriously injured, but the proverbial button had already been pressed.

While it made a huge mess of the meeting, in hindsight I was glad to see the process in action and that procedure was in place.

[Southern Man]

Whenever a death occurs at a race meeting in NZ it is a legal requirement to notify the NZ Police Dept. It does appear as though it was a medical issue that caused Davids death and I am sure that this will be confirmed by the Coroner. Today we held his funeral in Timaru which was attended by people from all parts of NZ. David was a very strong part of both local and NZ motorsport, the community at large and the motor industry in general. We will all miss him.

[NewsStalker]

It's the same in Australia. As long as MANZ don't do what CAMS did with a fatality at Wakefield Park some years ago - put out a press release on the Monday afterwards with the banner 'Driver killed at Wakefield Park'.

Th eonly problem was - he wasn't 'killed' - he died of a heart attack whilst racing - two extremely different scenarios and the cause was known at the time of the incident.

But CAMS didn't care and I bellieve, despite protests from the family and track, they never retracted their original media release.

[XR8Chic]

Originally Posted by NewsStalker

It's the same in Australia. As long as MANZ don't do what CAMS did with a fatality at Wakefield Park some years ago - put out a press release on the Monday afterwards with the banner 'Driver killed at Wakefield Park'.

Th eonly problem was - he wasn't 'killed' - he died of a heart attack whilst racing - two extremely different scenarios and the cause was known at the time of the incident.

But CAMS didn't care and I bellieve, despite protests from the family and track, they never retracted their original media release.

I remember that well. I was working in the race secretary's office with Judy that weekend. The Police went off when they came down, and found the event still running.

[Amaroo Park]

With any investigation of a Motor Racing fatality you would hope it gives the family whatever closure it can on the tragedy

[smarm]

As a CMO of a few different events, the chaps above have it correct, the police will always be involved at the scene of death, or a declared critical incident (which can be called by the CMO). A medical alert, can be called before this, to allow the resources to be readied incase a critical incident is declared. The CAMS critical incident protocol is an interesting read.

As the death needs to be treated like a crime scene, the police and coroner will be involved. One of the primary concerns can be protection of the scene as evidence including skid marks, tyre tracks etc, which can be difficult at best with all the rescue personal on scene.

Eitherway, sorry to hear about the death of a competitor, always brings home the reality of the sport we compete in.