Where is the "Duty of Care"

[dangeradam]

Where does the duty of care lie in V8 supercars.

Is it with cams the organisers of the events or avesco. I was thinking about the Kelly crashes and given that he was a menace all weekend what recourse do people like bright have when no action was taken , its a dangerous legal area for racing to get into but surely things will head down this path sooner or later.

Its only a matter of time in this series before someone really gets hurt, joe punter that doesn't follow the series loves a crash but proper fans never get exited about big bingles. Maybe people are being let get away with things purely for the spectacle of it how much is to much and how long can it go on ????

[deeks6]

Yes, this is a potential minefield, given that there are precedents in many other sports for damages caused by reckless actions (deliberate or not). There is no doubt that a court would take a very dim view of Wreck Kelly's actions had Bright been hurt and pressed charges (although "teammates" would'nt do that, would they Kees?). His weekend of carnage would see him suspended in any other sport and a hefty fine. If Bright had hit on the drivers side or been t-bones by Ingall, he WOULD have been seriously hurt - his lucky escape should not mean Wreck gets away with it.
Daddy could pay the fine from petty cash but money don't buy brains.

[Onlooker]

Probally hard to prove that PWR actually lost anything as they may not have an invoice for that car

[GTRMagic]

This is a serious matter, but has anyone noticed how both PWR and Holden Motorsport are trying to deflect blame from Crashbandicoot by saying it was only an accident and just one of those things??

I would seriously suggest the next bill from PWR for radiators might have a few zeroes attached that werent there before

I have the same problem with duty of care in the ChampCar race... the officials saw Carpentier's front wing failing, and did not black flag the car to replace it... is it the team's negligence, or ignorance of officials of a life threatening safety issue.

Not as bad as a teflon coated race driver, but of a similar problem...

[LordClyde]

This subject on duty of care ,would be fixed very easily by a very good barrister or QC .in my working life i have great experience on this subject.

[GTRMagic]

Well Mr Weel Sr has a few on tap, taking the AVESCO/TEGA mob to task over the $300k fine... maybe they could borrow one of them during morning tea at the next instalment and get an opinion

[amiers]

This is a serious matter, but has anyone noticed how both PWR and Holden Motorsport are trying to deflect blame from Crashbandicoot by saying it was only an accident and just one of those things??

good point GTR.apart from his "i feel sick" statement he has been very quiet. all a bit odd how well everyone at Hms,K-MART and PWR are taking it. all calm and understanding. wonder how Murphy will feel if he is leading the championship next year and Mr Bandicoot punts him? kiss and hug? NOT!!!!!!!

[malarky]

Let's retain some perspective here. I think that Kelly had a bad weekend too and I don't and never have had much time for him as a driver.

However, he is hardly the first driver to cause significant damage from a careless manoeuvre.

Dumbrell anyone?

You can attribute much of Lowndes spectacular Calder crash to a cheeky move by Ingall.

Murphy and Bargs at PI?

There's plenty more.

What about Longhurst's deliberate 'pay back' punt on the DoDo mobile. Not too much damage, but clearly and act of malice (as was Romano's effort at PI a couple of years back.

What about Wilson's 'smoke screen' spin at PI that almost destroyed Lowndes' car?

There are plenty of these examples and Kelly's is just the latest one.

The officials responsible should deal with what happens on the track. As soon as you start threatening civil action, you may as well give them all hire karts with 10HP motors....

[Chappelli]

As I think GTR summed up before, a dumb move is a dumb move, three dumb moves is something a little more serious.

Like any form of driving, an error of judgement should recieve a slap on the hand, three in a row and you've got somebody who doesn't care about the slap on the hand.

[dynamik gal]

Common law states that duty of care is:
You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your patient/participant - in this instance, a driver.

In the case of the start of race 2 of the Porsche Carrerra Cup at Bathurst, had one of the drivers been found to have a serious injury, ie, could not partake in the next race, suffers symptoms for an amount of time or in worst case scenario symptoms occur for the rest of their lives, then they can sue the governing body, which would be CAMS/AVESCO, whoever gave the thumbs up to starting the race under yellow with a stalled car on the grid.

In the case of brighty's crash at Indy, had there been a driver on track that was recklessly driving and could therefore possibly endanger or risk other drivers on the track, then it is AVESCO/CAMS' duty of care to remove this driver and/or give a warning.