Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly

Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 05:58 AM

Saw this on yellowbullit. I guess as wrecks go this one turned out a lot better than it could have.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjyINdn0Fn8&feature=youtu.be

Posted By: 1_WILD_RT

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 06:08 AM

Wow!! That could have been so much worse.. Appears the driver was knocked out? Odd the car didn't move but the throttle was wide open... Safety crew did good...

Posted By: max_maniac

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 06:09 AM

that was really scary looking. I can't believe that once the throttle was stuck and then the fire started that it kept running as long as it did.

Russ

Posted By: Ari440

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 06:09 AM

Posted By: tubtar

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 06:14 AM

That was a certifiable WOW !
It could have been so much worse.

Posted By: Todd

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 06:19 AM

WOW! Can't believe it ran that long. Could have been really bad.

Posted By: Jeepmon

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 07:01 AM

We were at the track and raced over to the fence to watch the aftermath.. We got there moments after they put out the fire..

It seemed to take forever for the track crew to cut out the driver, as they first attempted to use the jaws of life on the driver door, then they broke out the windshield, cut the a pilars and rolled back the roof.. they then had to cut thru the 6.5 roll bar to extract the driver..

Rumor has it that the crew of the Firebird up'd the tune trying to get a 7.0 pass, except the sun had went down and the track was getting cold.. The reason the motor ran WOT for as long as it did is because the driver was knocked unconscious but was able to give the thumb as he was loaded into the ambulance

Posted By: Cudafied

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 07:04 AM

Holy Crap

That could have gotten real ugly

Posted By: gregsrt

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 07:04 AM

That was something else. I can't believe it ran that long. Did both drivers side wheels come off?

Posted By: Jeepmon

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 07:13 AM

Quote:

That was something else. I can't believe it ran that long. Did both drivers side wheels come off?

From our vantage point, we never saw the left side of the car.. They loaded it on the flatbed truck and then took the long way out of the raceway avoiding the pit area..

Posted By: Triple Threat

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 07:22 AM

He (Eric "Wildman" Peterson) is a local from up here. Everything I'm hearing says he is ok, that's including messages on facebook from people who are at the hospital with him. Car on the other hand is done. WOW is about all you can say, I'm glad no one got hurt, things could have gone much worse.

Posted By: afxcoronet

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 09:51 AM

That gave me goosebumps...very happy to hear the driver is doing ok...

Curtis

Posted By: Chris'sBarracuda

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 12:31 PM

Watched it live on Bangshift..

All I can say is I've never seen anything like that in 38 years of Drag Racing..

Chris..

Posted By: dustergirl340

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 02:47 PM

holy crap....just when you think you've seen everything....

Posted By: CRT

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 04:25 PM

Thank God for the Safety crew.

Posted By: cudadon

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 04:38 PM

Could you imagine if that happened at 41?

Posted By: nhramark

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 04:52 PM

Nice to see a real safety crew at work. Pretty darn brave of them to approach that car while it was under full power AND on fire.

Posted By: slantzilla

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 05:02 PM

Quote:

Could you imagine if that happened at 41?

Good point Don. Guy would have probably burned to death.

Incidents like this is why we have all the safety rules that people cry about. Safety equipment is just like car insurance. It sucks to pay for, but when you really need it............

Saw on YB that the driver was pissed because they cut him out of the car. Hopefully that was just because he was still in shock.

Posted By: OUTLAWSSAA

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 05:13 PM

Quote:

Could you imagine if that happened at 41?

Ya, it would still be burning.

Posted By: rickraw

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 08:45 PM

dang, that was nasty.

Posted By: Pacnorthcuda

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 08:51 PM

Quote:

The reason the motor ran WOT for as long as it did is because the driver was knocked unconscious but was able to give the thumb as he was loaded into the ambulance

But what kept the car motionless for so long? Did the driver engage line lock before passing out????

Posted By: 1_WILD_RT

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/20/11 10:54 PM

I think like Gregsrt mentioned both drivers side wheels are gone.... Still surprised it didn't move.. Ugly, coulda been much worse & Yeah while watching this I thought about the video from 41..

Posted By: cudadon

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/21/11 12:37 AM

Quote:

Quote:

Could you imagine if that happened at 41?

Ya, it would still be burning.

After what happened with you Don, and being there when they needed an ambulance had to wait 20 min. for Newton co. to get there.

I will NEVER go there again!

That guy would've literally been TOAST.

Posted By: pittsburghracer

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/21/11 01:49 AM

Quote:

Thank God for the Safety crew.

It seemed like it took them forever to get things under control but they did a great job. sometimes taking a few seconds to think before jumping into action not only helps the driver but also those helping out. Sometimes we complain about safety equipment and how often we have to replace it but it does save lives and helps prevent injury. After wrecking the daytona at half track (130mph)last year I felt good enough to watch Matt race that night. I think he lost around 3:00 am that night.

Posted By: Eric

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/21/11 03:17 AM

I know this has been posted before..but...this should be a training video for track safety crews..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJjkd5ghzDc&feature=fvsr

Fortunately it's my home track

Posted By: J_BODY

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/21/11 03:50 AM

another issue the track safety personnel had to deal with was that when they came down the track you couldn't see the car as it was engulfed in a cloud of smoke. There is another angle of that video that they showed today that showed how dangerously close that car could have been zipping back toward the starting line under full power. While tragic from a mechanical standpoint, there were alot of people very fortunate that the front end/left side of that car was disabled enough for it to stop.

On a lighter note I'd hate to be the one paying for the fuel cost/materials for the clean up crew at LVMS this weekend. Holy downtime!!

Posted By: elitecustombody

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/22/11 02:35 PM

Quote:

Thank God for SLOW Safety crew.

Fixed that for you.

It's a shame to see this accident happen.The Firebird looks just like mine less the cowl hood and wheely bars.Glad the driver is OK

Posted By: bigsbigelow

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/22/11 02:45 PM

I don't know about you guys but did that track look especially greasy? Either way, I hope the driver, crew, and car can recover with out issue.

Posted By: Challenger 1

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/22/11 03:08 PM

I'm thinking the roll cage didn't fit the driver or the car. That wasn't that big of a hit the first time to knock him out it didn't seem. Something needs to change with that driver and car. It not too safe like it was from seeing that.
I wonder if his belts were tight?

Posted By: Al_Alguire

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/22/11 05:22 PM

The track prep was AWESOME all weekend. Even with ALL the pil downs and pinballing cars hitting walls they had the track 100% perfect. The sheen you are looking at was traction not greasy.

As for the accident. I talked to one of the guys from the team that wrecked. Apparetnly there was a malfunction with the throttle linkage and it got stuck. When it started to get loose he was unable to pedal. The throttle was unresponsive and after pulling up on the toe hook a few times he started reaching for his switches and chutes while braking. It was only a split second before he smacked the wall and was unconscious. The throttle remained stuck. The front control arms had buckled from the impact and the car remained at WOT and went wherever it wanted to.

Posted By: RobX4406

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/22/11 06:12 PM

Quote:

I'm thinking the roll cage didn't fit the driver or the car. That wasn't that big of a hit the first time to knock him out it didn't seem. Something needs to change with that driver and car. It not too safe like it was from seeing that.
I wonder if his belts were tight?

I bet that hit was in the 40+ g's range. May not look hard but that is a tough hit to take.

Some of the most violent hits in racing for drivers are just like that, pancaking the side of the car. Go ask a stock car driver.

Posted By: 1_WILD_RT

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/22/11 06:18 PM

Quote:

Quote:

Thank God for SLOW Safety crew.

Fixed that for you.

So you'd rather they rush right in & not take a few seconds to access the situation? It's not like it took a long time for them to get on scene, fact is there was so much tire smoke it's hard to access the dangers both to the driver & the safety crew.. If they go charging in & get hit by the car they won't be doing the driver any good... There were people working on the car, driver & fire within one minute.. If they had come flying up & got taken out by the car how long would it have taken to get reinforcements out there to help the driver & the safety crew?

Posted By: Al_Alguire

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/22/11 06:27 PM

By the way one of the rescue workers who rushed to the car was hurt when one of the tires exploded. So for all you internet theorists out there speak only of what you know. I was there I spoke with those involved and I saw the carnage. They did a great job and should be applauded.

Posted By: maximum entropy

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/22/11 06:37 PM

Quote:

By the way one of the rescue workers who rushed to the car was hurt when one of the tires exploded. So for all you internet theorists out there speak only of what you know. I was there I spoke with those involved and I saw the carnage. They did a great job and should be applauded.

rescue crew rule #1- protect yourself. if the rescuer is incapacitated, the situation just got a lot worse.

Posted By: 10 o to go

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/23/11 12:55 AM

looks like the smoke was blowing up track toward safety crew and under full power ,was a dangerous situation .It wasn't that long you can see the safety with lights on at top end coming .

Posted By: cheapstreetdustr

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/23/11 02:21 AM

Quote:

Quote:

I'm thinking the roll cage didn't fit the driver or the car. That wasn't that big of a hit the first time to knock him out it didn't seem. Something needs to change with that driver and car. It not too safe like it was from seeing that.
I wonder if his belts were tight?

I bet that hit was in the 40+ g's range. May not look hard but that is a tough hit to take.

Some of the most violent hits in racing for drivers are just like that, pancaking the side of the car. Go ask a stock car driver.

that type of impact is two hits in one a double wammy...the second is often harder....

Posted By: Darryls-Demon

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/23/11 03:08 AM

I was in the stands watching the run, most of the time I am looking the other way when something like that happens but this time I got to see the whole ordeal.
Watching it happen in real time was very hard to do it just seemed like it took forever for the motor to stop running, i think everyone who seen it happen was in shock for a time.

Attached picture 6931988-IMG_1882.JPG

Posted By: 70Cuda383

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/28/11 02:10 PM

glad he's going to be ok.

at first, I thought "that guy's crazy, he just crashed his car, and now he's doing a burnout for the crowd?!

then realized what was happening and thought "crap...how are they gonna approach the car?!"

I'd hate to think what would happen in a car if the driver gets knocked out, throttle is jammed open, and the car remains drivable...heading backwards up the track.

especially since most tracks I've been to, in an effort to be "time efficient" they let the cars pull up to the burnout box while the 2 racers are staging, are letting them do their burnout once the 2 on the track are down past the 1/2 way mark

Posted By: Challenger 1

Re: Bad wreck at Vegas but could have been real ugly - 11/28/11 02:14 PM

Quote:

glad he's going to be ok.

at first, I thought "that guy's crazy, he just crashed his car, and now he's doing a burnout for the crowd?!

then realized what was happening and thought "crap...how are they gonna approach the car?!"

I'd hate to think what would happen in a car if the driver gets knocked out, throttle is jammed open, and the car remains drivable...heading backwards up the track.

especially since most tracks I've been to, in an effort to be "time efficient" they let the cars pull up to the burnout box while the 2 racers are staging, are letting them do their burnout once the 2 on the track are down past the 1/2 way mark

Shelly Howard had that happen to her, she was killed along with her son.