If you needed yet another graphic demonstration of how safe modern racecars are, look no further than the video above. You'll see one car moving slowly across the track after spinning out, after which it's struck twice. One of those cars flies through the air before landing in a broken smattering of carbon fiber.
The crash happened after Ryan Tveter's Formula 3 car threw up a cloud of dust as it slid through the gravel trap, reducing visibility for Zhi Cong Li and causing him to drive up the back of Tveter's disabled car and launch skyward. Pedro Piquet also hit Tveter's car, but with significantly less spectacular results. The race was immediately halted.
Initial reports from the scene indicated that Li was unconscious after the wreck, but he was awake and alert at the hospital. Li suffered injuries to his heel and four fractured vertebrae. Tveter was also taken to the hospital for unspecified injuries, but Piquet was unharmed.
Motorsports are inherently dangerous, and this likely won't be the last such incident we see this year. Still, the fact that all three drivers will eventually recover after this horrendous accident is a testament to the safety of Formula 3 cars.
One of the worst accidents i've ever seen. Incredible that everyone got out alive.
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Joined: Apr 2001 Posts: 121,474PanzerMeyer
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PanzerMeyer
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Joined: Apr 2001
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It's amazing no one died.
And yet sometimes you have an auto racing accident that didn't look that serious at all and the driver ended up getting killed (ie Dale Earnhardt).
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
I'm surprised how this came about... when the car went into the gravel I assume yellows came out. That the following car drives trough a vision-blocking dust cloud at full speed is a bit hard to understand under Caution.
Yes, the rear car should never have gone through the dust cloud like that. The wreck is almost 100% on the second driver. Even if it is not under caution you still NEVER drive through smoke or dust at full speed. NEVER. That is how you kill yourself or someone else.
Regardless of who was at fault, to walk away from a double hit like this was unreal. The shock of that hit was real evident when the driver finally collapses after walking off the track. Would not be surprised of internal injuries.
And yet sometimes you have an auto racing accident that didn't look that serious at all and the driver ended up getting killed (ie Dale Earnhardt).
Earnhardt would have survived and maybe broken a bone or two if he'd not been one of the biggest opponents to head-restraint systems (and close-faced helmets... something that later saved his son from serious burns).
I think three drivers died that year. I know Swede Savage was burned up pretty bad, but came back to race for a few years. One of the tires looked like it flew one or two hundred feet in the air.
Nothing can compare to Le Mans in '55. But the one that sticks with me is Kyalami in '77. Not recommending that anyone search the video (just don't), but two marshalls attempted to cross the track to help a driver who had pulled to the side. The first made it, the second was struck by a race car, killing him. The fire extinguisher he was carrying nearly decapitated the driver of the car, killing him.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Of course, when you said don't look it up I did. I assume the driver and the other guy were in shock, because it doesn't even seem to register with them.
Amazingly its the ones that don't look that dramatic that are often fatal. Basically the ones that come to a sudden relatively non-dramatic stop, Earnhart, Senna, Bianchi for example are the fatal crashes in the modern era.
