Pass Of The Year

[Ken]

Well I think I saw it all last night and the true face of F1 came through. It was when the ambulance with the dying marshal in the back was forced to stop on the track on it's way to the hospital to allow the Pace car and field to pass. To me this is one of the low points in F1 as the race has to go on because of the millions spent and the hell with a persons life ? Oh some may say it only took a minute but ask the guy in the back if he can last a little longer, if it was one of us would we say take your time ? Last year when a Marshal got killed Bernie had to TELL the teams to put money up or be fined .

[Bononi]

To be true Ken, I really believe that scene only showed the truth : The poor man was already dead.
The ambulance wasn't with the lights on, and doesn't seem to have to hurry. But as we all know this can't be confirmed, because in that case the race should be stopped.
Sad, and the powers that be should reconsider all the rules applying to security OUT of track...

[Tristan]

Aha!! I wasn't the only one to notice this! Surely that didnt have the marshall in it! No way! Surely???

[Carla O]

Originally posted by Bononi
To be true Ken, I really believe that scene only showed the truth : The poor man was already dead.
The ambulance wasn't with the lights on, and doesn't seem to have to hurry. But as we all know this can't be confirmed, because in that case the race should be stopped.
Sad, and the powers that be should reconsider all the rules applying to security OUT of track...

I've said this in another thread and i'll say it again. Even if it was just serious injuries, with spectators also injured they should have simply stopped the race.

I know people will come up with the arguments of TV schedules and the dangers of a new start and the show must go on... But for me human lives are more important than a race, ad breaks or TV schedules.

Have you noticed how they never die in the track, it's always when they get to the hospital. Why? so as the races aren't stopped.

[R]

At the time when the ambulance pulled over to let the field pass, the marshal was already dead, make no mistake about it.

The ambulance was never in a hurry, and I knew straightaway that could only mean one out of two things: Either there was no serious injury, or the guy was dead. Unfortunately the latter was the case.

[Ralf's Girl]

There was no way that the marshal in the back of that ambulance was alive. It's tragic, but it's true. They didn't have the lights on, they weren't in a rush, and they were perfectly willing to stop and let the safety car and the entire field pass. If there had been a man in there who could have been saved, they would have been going straight to hospital to save him. At least the camera crew were more sensitive than the ones at Monza last year, and we weren't subjected to watching trackside doctors trying to resuscitate him.

[Guy Goddard]

I agree with all the comments, the race should have been stopped in the same way it should have been in 94 with Senna.
when a mans life is taken, someone who was there enjoying the sport and doing it for nothing is harsh, had JV been killed it would have been different. Whilst I appreciate there was no spraying of bubbly I also think the awards should also have been abondoned.
If F1 has any heart or even the drivers I hope financial support is also offered to the dead mans family.

[EERO]

I also thought I was the only one who noticed it. It really ****ed me off and whether or not the poor schmuck was dead or not, it was hugely disrespectful.
I also don't think that the ambulance was loafing. Even behind the pace car, the speed differential between the field and a Ford truck with a really high center of gravity is enourmous. Safety laps are usually in the 80mph range; there's no way that ambulance could negotiate the track at those speeds.

The reason victims "Die" in the hospital is that as long as CPR is being administered, blood flow and respiration are maintained, albeit arificially. At the Hospital, a Doctor can cease CPR if it is having no effect. For the 5-10 minutes following the accident, the obligation upon emergency workers is to persist. So the guy may have been "dead", but I'll bet they hadn't stopped trying to revive him.

[Billy_Hunt]

How do you know he was already dead on the circuit ?
I've just read this on the Autosport site

Despite reports that the marshal actually died at the Albert Park circuit, Hansen said he succumbed to his injuries at a nearby hospital.

But this shouldn't make a bit of difference attempts to revive him should and I would like to think would, have been made all the way to the hospital and then carried on at the hospital.
I'm not fully aware of his full injuries but unless the injuries prevented any resuscitation attempts then thats what should have happened
To think they were trying to save someones life and had to stop to let the field pass is just beyond comprehension.
If this happened within the first lap of the race it would have been stopped and restarted so why not do this after 5 laps we are talking about somebody's life for crying out loud

[Liz]

I don't know what the law is in other countries, of course, but the reason that nobody officially dies at a U.S. track is that if someone is declared dead at a U.S. Track, this obligates the police to declare it a crime scene and then they have to cordon it off and begin investigations at once. Since this is obviously not in the best interest of the sport, no one is declared dead at the track. This is why it took until Lap 100 at Fontana for Greg Moore's death to be announced, although anyone who saw that accident had no illusions what had happened, before that car stopped bouncing upside down ...

Perhaps if the tracks were forced under regulations to red-flag any race where there are fatalities caused directly by racing (such as these marshalls' deaths or the flying wheels in IRL and CART), it might make the pilots think a little bit more about the fact that they are in survival cells but all the support people and the spectators are not. And if Bernie has to give back the money, perhaps he will press for more safety for those people on the outside of the cars.

[Dino IV]

Same phenomenon in Europe IIRC, Liz, and probably the same all over the world. That was the same reason why Ayrton was declared dead in Bologna 6 hours after the race, although we know now from his injuries he died instantly.

[Airhead]

The reason victims "Die" in the hospital is that as long as CPR is being administered, blood flow and respiration are maintained, albeit arificially. At the Hospital, a Doctor can cease CPR if it is having no effect. For the 5-10 minutes following the accident, the obligation upon emergency workers is to persist. So the guy may have been "dead", but I'll bet they hadn't stopped trying to revive him.

EERO,

that is 100% correct, the paramedics operate to protocol, and in fact can't call off an 'arrest' until a doctor in the receiving Emergency Department reviews the patient - or hears the story in gruesome cases - and takes the legal responsibility to pronnounce life extinct. This is then automatically a coroner's case, so everyone plays it by the book.

The lights and sirens not being on when the ambulance was circulating does not in itslef mean anything, the same thing on a public road would be a different matter. In that uncontrolled environment the ambulance driver needs all the help he/she can get.

[Valve Bounce]

I have already discussed this in my thread about the safety car. As I said, there is no logical reason for the safety car to be on the circuit. In such a serious accident, the race should have been stopped immediately, and once they realised that someone was hurt, a helicopter ambulance could have been despatched to the scene with paramedics and a doctor, landing on the trackside. The helicopter could then have taken the injured person to the hospital which would have taken about 1 minute. In this particular case, in the time taken for the ambulance to reach the accident scene, the use of a helicoptr would have meant the marshal would already have been in the hospital.

[kuchi]

Well guys I think there´s no further thing to say, I agree with all of you, the race should´ve been stopped. At first I thought the safety car was in because of the debris, but when I saw the ambulance I knew something wasn´t right. By the end of the raced I didn´t knew the marshall had died, but when the drivers did not throw the champaign at the podium, I realized something bad had just happened. My prayers to the family of that man.

[massifheed]

That isn't really accurate. Helicopters don't just appear, they often take a while to get to the scene of an accident. In fact a lot of the time they are merely chosen because they can access diffcult areas. Don't forget that F1 circuits have medical centres that are stocked as good as any emergency room. F1 spends the most money on their medical facilities out of all other motorsports. Flying the guy straight to hospital probably wouldn't be any quicker, in fact it might have taken longer than treating him at the medical centre. The point is that in this case as most people on here have said, the guy's injuries were total, and the people giving him treatment would have known that but would have kept up the treatment as they were supposed to do.

It's a hard thing to deal with, but trying to place blame with someone isn't going to help. Also when the decision was made to carry on under the saftey car, the officials probably didn't have all the info as to what is going on. They have to make a dificult call and are hit by the intesity of the situation just as anyone else is. It was tragic because of the loss of life, but pointing the finger is as ridiculous as saying the Marshal got in the way.