Kids & ear protection - again....

[Piglet]

I've said it before and suspect I'm very much preaching to the converted here....

I've done a number of big family friendly meetings over the last few weeks - F3/GT Oulton Park, A1GP Brands and FIA GT's Silverstone. I've lost track of the number of small (2 or 3 year old) kids I've seen walking round with their fingers in their ears looking really unhappy.

I always carry a stash of spare earplugs in my pocket and went through most of my spares at Brands - A1GP cars are very loud!! The last set went to a tiny little girl on Copse corner yesterday with her hood up,her hands over the top and her bottom lip out!

So if you have friends, work colleagues etc. who are taking their kids to a race meeting, perhaps for the first time - please, please, tell them how loud cars are and how delicate a small child's hearning is.

Rant over!

[beefy]

I always do, but the warning always seems to fall on deaf ears - no pun intended. Are there any companies that could provide them at circuits?

[Sheila M]

Carry on ranting Piglet - I'm with you all the way on this subject!

At Donington today I was horrified to see during the pit walkabout a couple with two small children aged about 2, 3 and a baby that can only have been a few months old. All were standing by one of the Historic GP cars that was revving up fit to bust. The mother had her fingers in her ears. The children wore no ear protection and looked very unhappy. I'll never understand why people bring small children to race meetings anway, let alone risk permanently damaging their hearing.

[Piglet]

Originally Posted by beefy

I always do, but the warning always seems to fall on deaf ears - no pun intended. Are there any companies that could provide them at circuits?

You can get them in the shops at most (all?) circuits, they only cost a small amount of money. You can also get them in Boots and other places aimed at travellers.

We bought a box of 200 last year as it was the cheapest way to buy them! At this rate I'm going to have given them all out to other people and their kids.

On the flip side I had to stop myself going up to families where the kids had earplugs or defenders and congratulating them! Now that would have scared them

[rcarr]

I used to wear ear muffs when I was younger at Ingliston coz some of the cars then were very loud especially when they came round into the arena area, the sound would reverbarate around the stand, in the paddock it wasn't so bad because it was out in the open. By the age of 6 or 7, I was fine with the noise, my ears became used to it.

At Le Mans with the McLaren F1s and the works Marcoses were very loud, they shook the entire pit grandstand when they drove past but I wasn't personally effected by the noise.

I am now a little deaf, maybe due to being around noisy racing cars all of my life?

My fiancees nephew is very sensitive to "loud" noises like me shouting and the dog barking, he starts crying when ever something happens. I told my fiancee that he is a wimp and should go and stand next to a F1 car when it starts up, then he'll learn what loud is.

[MikeH]

Originally Posted by Sheila M

I'll never understand why people bring small children to race meetings anway

Always been a bugbear of mine - for no other reason that whilst the youngest kids just get distressed at the noise pretty much constantly (saw it loads of times at the FIA GTs this weekend), the older kids just get bored straight away and race meetings aren't exactly what you would call short - bored kids causing havoc and running about all over the place at Knockhill has been happening for as long as I've been going there.

[Sheila M]

Originally Posted by rcarr

I

I am now a little deaf, maybe due to being around noisy racing cars all of my life?

Very likely. I too suffer from hearing problems, having had a burst eardrum - caused by a Ferrari at Copse, Silverstone, in 1988! It was the first time I'd ever attended an F1 race and I had no ear protection because I didn't realise how loud they were. Half way through the race I was in severe pain which started in my left ear and went all the way down to the fingers of my left hand. Once the Ferraris fell off the problem eased.

It's not so much the volume of noise, but the pitch that does the damage. Think of going to a really loud rock concert and how your ears ring for hours afterwards - same thing happens with racing cars. Which is why you'll rarely see me without airport style ear defenders these days.

[Charlies]

At the Donington F3/GT there was a group of kids jumping and pulling at the fencing. I nearly said something, but concluded they probably wouldn't listen anyway. Some people seem to have kids and then absolve themselves of any responsibility for them.

[zac510]

I have a mild hearing loss myself and this irritates me too because I know first hand the damage a hearing loss causes, especially at a young age. I usually have spare plugs in my bag myself in addition to my moulded ones and would happily share them. At the FIA GT and the hillclimb this weekend I saw a few kids walking around with ear defenders and I was glad to see that.

However I am in no way disappointed in my father for taking me to F1 when I was a child. He got me hooked

[bella]

Originally Posted by Charlies

At the Donington F3/GT there was a group of kids jumping and pulling at the fencing. I nearly said something, but concluded they probably wouldn't listen anyway. Some people seem to have kids and then absolve themselves of any responsibility for them.

if i see one more set of kids playing ball games in spectator areas i won't be held responsible for my actions. the parents would be the first ones to whinge if their kids got hurt or they got thrown out...

[Chris Y]

There was a couple of kids playing with a football outside Hailwoods at Brands this weekend. I nearly got tackled as I tried to walk past them. No parents to be seen.

[Piglet]

Originally Posted by bella

if i see one more set of kids playing ball games in spectator areas i won't be held responsible for my actions. the parents would be the first ones to whinge if their kids got hurt or they got thrown out...

Without giving names or locations (to protect the innocent!), there were some very unhappy children at a circuit last year when a marshal put his knife through the football they were playing with adjacent to the circuit... Mother was very unimpressed with the lack of sympathy she got when complaining about it!

[Suze]

I would love to have been there to see that.... Hopefully Mother will have learnt for next time.

[GordonG]

I was watching at Lydden a fortnight ago where a kid was kicking a ball up and down the grass bank adjacent to the exit from the hairpin. Nowt but a 3' fence between the ball and the cars on track. I do wish I'd had the balls to go b*llock the mother, but I'm far too English for that.

G

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by Sheila M

I'll never understand why people bring small children to race meetings anway.

I take the little 'un with me to race meetings because he always asked about it when I went and left him behind or when it was on the TV or when he saw my Motorsport News. He's quite happy to come along and watch the racing (it helps that I know some of the drivers and he can sit in their cars, has someone to cheer on etc.). At the moment I only take him along to Lydden and only for SEMSEC or Sunday meetings - that way it's only an afternoon and he won't get too bored. He always takes some toy cars as well and is quite happy to sit on the grass and play if the race isn't holding his attention. Also at Lydden clubbie meetings the 'crowd' isn't that big so it's easy to keep an eye on him and there aren't many people about to upset

There are some children at race meetings that are out of control and quite frankly a pain in the backside but it's certainly not true in all cases. As far as the noise goes - again Lydden clubbies aren't ear bashers but certainly if I took him to A1, EuroBOSS or similar then earplugs would be the order of the day.

[Charlies]

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of parents who take responsibility for their kids and the sport needs fans for the future. But some seem to bring them and let them loose while they watch the racing. Most of the behaviour is just annoying, but some verges on the dangerous. Some adults aren't much better though...

[jonners]

No idea how true this is but a mate reckons small children's ears are very susceptible to damage from generators because the children are at more or less the same level.

I'll never forget the ringing in my ears after the Willhire 24hrs years ago and you do wonder a bit when you see children dozing in their prams just a few yards away from a generator.

Worst noise I can remember was a Mazda rotary in (I think) Thundersports at Brands - I could feel that pain in my teeth for days...

[Sheila M]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

I take the little 'un with me to race meetings because he always asked about it when I went and left him behind or when it was on the TV or when he saw my Motorsport News. He's quite happy to come along and watch the racing (it helps that I know some of the drivers and he can sit in their cars, has someone to cheer on etc.). At the moment I only take him along to Lydden and only for SEMSEC or Sunday meetings - that way it's only an afternoon and he won't get too bored. He always takes some toy cars as well and is quite happy to sit on the grass and play if the race isn't holding his attention. Also at Lydden clubbie meetings the 'crowd' isn't that big so it's easy to keep an eye on him and there aren't many people about to upset

If your little 'un is old enough to ask about racing then he's probably over the age of 2. I was referring to people who take tiny babies and toddlers to race meetings - that really bugs me, usually because the children never have any ear protection.

Puts me in mind of an air show I went to many years ago. I saw a remarkable sight when a Tornado was doing a low level fly past at full chat with afterburners on. A woman was carrying a poodle and had her hands over its ears, while her very small child in the buggy next to her had no ear protection and was screaming fit to bust.

[Suze]

Erm I went racing from when I was a baby....as far as I remember I always had ear protection (at least as far back as I can remember, when I was about 2!). I don't have any major problems now with hearing which is probably down to being protected.

I did see a baby (prob no more than 6 months old) in the pitlane at Brands during the A1GP, being carried by it's mother - the cars were forming up on the grid so weren't as loud but aside from the fact it was in the pitlane it's not good for it's hearing at all.

[bella]

people under the age of 16 shouldn't be in the pitlane anyway, so technically it shouldn't have been in there anyway

[Suze]

Exactly but think that's an issue for another thread!

[incidentally from what I saw it was security and not marshals controlling access - would've presumed security still knew the rules!]

[BertMk2]

Pitlanes get opened up for access at lunchtime at BTCC (and other?) meetings so there's the opportunity for plenty of under 16's in the pitlane. During the Brands meeting the pitlane was open to all whilst an A1GP car did demo laps. Once the pitlane becomes 'live' again all under 16's should be removed without exception (to be fair a number of over 16's should be removed too )

[Suze]

[mods can this get split off?]

This was at a point whilst the pitlane was live....so besides the baby having no ear protection they were in the wrong too for it being there.

[thebullet]

Originally Posted by Charlies

At the Donington F3/GT there was a group of kids jumping and pulling at the fencing. I nearly said something, but concluded they probably wouldn't listen anyway. Some people seem to have kids and then absolve themselves of any responsibility for them.

A couple of weeks ago at the BARC at Donington there was a group of 7 to 8 kids at Redgate with two adults they had no control over them, they started throwing mud at the fire extinguisher sign but still the adults protended they didn't know what was going on. And becuase our car was there my dad said something to them but the adults just turned away. After about 10 Minutes there was a full scale wrestling match on, so if they aren't going to watch the racing why bring them?

And just lately every where we either park the car or stand to watch a kid gets a football out i dont understand.

[Alan Raine]

My eldest daughter (who is now 20) first went to Oulton Park when she was less than a week old. She could sleep through a Formula Ford about 10ft away with no ear protection.

Is this why I have to shout at her at least 5 times before she'll get out of bed in the morning

As for other peoples kids behaviour. If the parents don't know how to behave, how can we expect their kids to. This a problem that affects society in general and not just Motor Racing