Rib injuries

[Sandgroper]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

How Lucky Was Damien Flack??

VERY lucky and when I saw FIRE I thought OMG Gonski.
Nice to see him smiling.

[greenracer]

Craig injured a leg at Calder Park when squeezed by two cars on the main straight and rolling several up onto the hill of the thunder dome .

[Langers]

Originally Posted by greenracer

Craig injured a leg at Calder Park when squeezed by two cars on the main straight and rolling several up onto the hill of the thunder dome .

Yes... last millenium.

[Senna05]

I look at any sport in this day and age, and know that we as a race have taken many steps to make them as safe as possible.

If you look at risk management protocol, the inherent end result is still the same - it's a deadly sport! But the mitigation's in place look to minimize what could happen.

A broken rib is definitely better than a broken neck or skull, and if the seats now better protect the head and neck in conjunction with the HANS device, it's the risk drivers do need to somewhat accept.

If motorsport officials mitigate from a worst case scenario, we just need to pack up the sport. And likewise, if we also just accept it is a dangerous sport and stop looking for solutions, we really need to re-think what we are doing.

I would suggest that as an example, Chaz's crash in a VR Group A car would have been much worse. The move of the driver inwards, the seats, and HANS device make what occurred simply highlight that while things could be better, they definitely could be worse!

[Umai Naa]

Some of the shunts we've seen in recent years, would've had a number of drivers out of action for quite a while, if we were still persisting with production car bodyshells.

[one five five]

Originally Posted by Senna05

I would suggest that as an example, Chaz's crash in a VR Group A car would have been much worse. The move of the driver inwards, the seats, and HANS device make what occurred simply highlight that while things could be better, they definitely could be worse!

Mark Skaife survived an impact not dissimiliar to Chaz's (in terms of speed, perhaps higher) in a VR Group A in 1995, and was back racing alot sooner than Chaz will be.

What about the crashes that Lowndes and Bowe had at Phillip Island in 1996?

Safety has come a long way, but lets not start beating on the past saying that things were "unsafe" then....Every motor racing era has strived for safety as best they could

[PVDA]

Interesting that the 2 wheeled versions of the sport are looking at the out pouring of grief for Chaz's leg and wondering what all the fuss is as that's a pretty standard bike injury.

As a person who deals with injuries with 2, 3, 4 & 6 wheeled racing all these are investigated to see if it can be prevented in the future, could be as simple as moving the levers or padding.

[bludvl_x19]

Originally Posted by PVDA

Interesting that the 2 wheeled versions of the sport are looking at the out pouring of grief for Chaz's leg and wondering what all the fuss is as that's a pretty standard bike injury.

Yeah, but by the same token, car racers look at bike riders funny because they can't stop without putting a foot down...

[Umai Naa]

Originally Posted by PVDA

Interesting that the 2 wheeled versions of the sport are looking at the out pouring of grief for Chaz's leg and wondering what all the fuss is as that's a pretty standard bike injury.

As a person who deals with injuries with 2, 3, 4 & 6 wheeled racing all these are investigated to see if it can be prevented in the future, could be as simple as moving the levers or padding.

Couldn't help but notice that the FPR cars showed no indication of an intent to improve driver safety around the gear lever.

Wouldn't have taken much to make up some sort of panel.

[Henry]

Originally Posted by Umai Naa

Couldn't help but notice that the FPR cars showed no indication of an intent to improve driver safety around the gear lever.

Wouldn't have taken much to make up some sort of panel.

a panel which would have done much the same in terms of trapping the driver's wrist or impacting his leg?

In high-inertia/momentum incidents, merely being present is going to get you hurt. Consider what sort of blunt instrument your right arm would become in a multi-g event... 5-ish kilos of bone travelling at large speeds and subject to large declarative forces... the concept of being clubbed unconscious - or worse by my own arm in a crash is a bizarre - but conceivable - occurrence...

[Umai Naa]

More so to contain the drivers leg within the footwell.

[Henry]

You're not going to stop people getting injured in high-energy accidents. For years and years, we were told that we needed a left foot rest in the pedal box, to enable the driver to brace and balance himself.... and after many years, manufacturers included them as OEM fitment... and then, with the release of the BA Falcon, Ford (for one) removed them... did you notice? I did... and I asked the local dealer why... and was told that it was to reduce the instances of broken femurs in road accidents. It seems that one of the complications of being squarely braced on your left leg when you augured into the scenery was that it put you in the right spot to snap your femur like a carrot.

If you contain the driver too snugly, he'll get crushed when his conveyance folds up around him, or you won't be able to get him out in a hurry if it goes further south and catches fire or something.

If you hit a wall almost square-on at better than 160km/h, you're pretty fortunate if you get out alive, no matter whether or not you're strapped in a race car, or whatever. Chaz broke a couple of bones, and as others have said, if you race bikes, you can do far worse than Chaz did. Chaz was unlucky, and lucky. He's lived to fight another day. He's less lucky than Dick Johnson was 30-something years prior, strapped into an XE Falcon shell stiffened with a couple of extra welds and a bolt-in aluminium roll cage which tore into a couple of trees with the steering set on "random"... up near the big numbers in second gear as the green Falcon was at the time, he wasn't travelling that much slower that Mostert's impacts...

[PVDA]

No doubt the basic car design will be looked into and knowing CAMS they'll also be looking at the catch fence and marshal post set up looking for improvements as marshal safety is just as important as the guys in the cars.

[275 GTB-4]

Michelin sponsorship could be a solution?

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=m...w=1280&bih=570