NEAR FATAL ACCIDENT at Drift Fury

[Mike Peters]

kidmightydumb, congrats, youve posted a picture of the specator area way far off the track, and proved that drift fury does in fact have a lot of media for an amateur event and you've spent enough time to track down random stuff that goes on. make sure to find all the drift mechaniks in their suits at the old bus stop, one of them could have fallen and broken a fingernail, how unsafe...

on topic however youve failed to prove any of your claims.

read octagons post, if you cant understand that go stand next to the closest interstate hghway 20 minutes after the local beer barns shut down, stand directly on the yellow lines, that should be safe as peopel arent suppost to hit the yellow lines.

again i ask, do you use k rails at your events?

what are the media requirements to be media at your events?

what are your events? do you have a website?

what is your policy on ride alongs?

what is your policy on tandem?

[Slapshotnerd]

kid dynomite - remind me who you're associated with. It's easy for people to hide behind internet personas, but maybe a little phone call would help iron things out.

Feel free to post your name / affiliation, or drop me a PM with your phone number.

After all, there's nothing to hide about, right?

[kidynomite]

show me one valid point youve made this whole thread, please.

So you can or can't think of a safe zone?

do YOU have k rails are your events?

Don't need them, we use real tracks not lots. We have nobody standing in any places where they can be hurt (yet we still get some great pics). We also don't have anyone sitting at apexes of corners to snap a pic 10 feet from the drivers.

dg trials doesnt. dailydrifter definately doesnt. the drift day events ive seen dont. auto-x's dont. why dont we hire babysitters and buy everyone a leash and electric collar as well while were being unpractical with budgeting out our perfectly safe motorsport event and hire a couple leprechauns to keep everyone safe with their lucky charms.

They aren't on trial here, they don't have a lot of "hearsay" about their events being unsafe. They must be doing something right

you know a krail for you posting in this thread would be nice for everyone that was at this event and knows what went on's reasoning ability.

I do not understand.

wangan wing and running 205's with an rb? (kidding!)

or are you referring to the photographer that if you dont know how the course is set up and dont see the obvious downward slope that creates an optical illusion of that guy almost getting hit when in reality he is at least 30-40' off track and that car is going on a wide line..

I am not reffering to him looking like he is getting hit, if I was his leg would have been broken in the pic. I am speaking of where he is in general, its not the greatest location for a photographer, a car can clear 30-40 feet at the snap of a finger.

i think your giving yourself way too much credit here. other than that this whole paragraph and most of everything you have written is complete useless jargon in relation to the subject in hand, which is why you are annoying the *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* out of everyone, and nobody is agreeing with you, but everyone is debating with you.

I am annoying the hell out of you, and thats fine with me. Most people have probably already given up reading this thread. The only people debating with me are people who gain from Drift Fury events (photographers, drivers, demo drivers, etc). I know I am not the only one who feels this is a tragedy at the fault of Drift Fury, I have had random people talk to me from other organizations who are on my side. Whether or not they post is thier own choice, it doesn't change that something needs to be done.

no, i said you are an idiot if you go to any type of automobile racing, drifting, spectating, motorsport, autosport, or even drive to the grocery store and think you are in a "safe zone". if you dont pay attention you could very well get hurt very badly. and for the 80th time, unfortunately, matt wasnt paying attention while standing next to a race track, a car lost control, everyone but matt saw it coming, because he had his back turned and wasnt paying attention. due to that small mistake, he is now badly injured.

There are rules on tracks for reasons.

nobody is having a problem reading, however you seem to have a huge shortcoming when it comes to the ability to comprehend what is being stated.

All you are managing to tell me is that hitting people is ok because its a track. I would love to see how your attitude explains stuff to insurance companies

it is no different. you have a bunch of people pushing their cars to their limit. everyone exceedes those limits and loses control whether they will admit to it or not. whenthat happens cars spin, go off line, lose the drift, initiate a drift, hit a wall, hit a tree, hit a poll, hit a toyota tacoma and get owned, hit joe black, hit animals, hit curbs, hit candles in the wind, and occasionally, hit photographers who have their back turned while standing near a race track. theres one time in life where you have control of a car, and thats when it is in a car crusher. accidents can and do happen, and this is a sad example of that.


i dont know what you are tryign to convince everyone of, but maybe you should just come out and say it instead of posting PAGES of redundant jargon, heresay, and now pics that were taken at a manury angle to where if you look at it for less than a full 1/10 a second it looks like the car and person are close. grow a pair and just slander who your looking to slander, tell them how awesome you think you are or whatever the hell you are trying to get at.

i honestly dont know who the heck you are, but if i ever meet you youll be that guy that whined in the drift fury accident thread for no reason.

make a legit point, or go away.

someone take matt guitar hero.

All you have managed to do is nitpick each of my posts and posts replies at what you can respond to. There is nothing I need from you since you have nothing to do with them.

If anything is taken out of this thread other than you and I both want the last word. I hope it is that Drift Fury makes some changes. If insurance is brought into this (found out they use the same insurance we do). I hope they do realize that Drift Fury does not represent the standards of safety that all the other drift organizations that they insure follows.

kidmightydumb, congrats, youve posted a picture of the specator area way far off the track, and proved that drift fury does in fact have a lot of media for an amateur event and you've spent enough time to track down random stuff that goes on. make sure to find all the drift mechaniks in their suits at the old bus stop, one of them could have fallen and broken a fingernail, how unsafe...

Note the marks in the corner of the picture and lack of any barriers

on topic however youve failed to prove any of your claims.

read octagons post, if you cant understand that go stand next to the closest interstate hghway 20 minutes after the local beer barns shut down, stand directly on the yellow lines, that should be safe as peopel arent suppost to hit the yellow lines.

To prevent this what are you going to do? Are you going to tell them to keep their eyes on the car? I think that is already said, I hope he was told that previously. If he wasn't there is your problem, right back at Drift Fury...

If he was, then he didnt listen, what are the chances of another photographer not listening to get that better shot. Very likely, what are you going to do about that, just let them get hit until you run out of venues? Or punish 10 camera men and tell them to move back and never go past this line...

again i ask, do you use k rails at your events?

look above

what are the media requirements to be media at your events?

Stay in specific areas, we have a few pro photographers they are aware of where they can go. If they want to go somewhere they ask a staff member, staff knows where they can or cannot go, its simple.

what are your events? do you have a website?

www.clubfr.net we run under drift association

what is your policy on ride alongs?

Before noon only instructors can ride along, after noon its open, but the starters can stop whom they want

what is your policy on tandem?

Only with cage and door bars, also need to be an "advanced driver", also left at the discretion of those participating in the tandem, also left at the discretion of the starter.

What do those Qs have to do with anything? I am not a hypocrite if that's what you are thinking...


Now go ahead and nit pick.

[kidynomite]

slap... check your pm... I won't post my number on the forum, my affiliation is above this post. Never said I had anything to hide.

[MonkeySlide]

Someone close this thread..everyones useless opinions are clear and no one is going to change them no matter how stupid it sounds.

This is turning into another FF3 thread.

[markshatchi86]

whoah there joey i dont know who p!ssed in your frosted flakes, calm down. im not making personal attacks at you so i dont know why you are resorting to doing so.

a) did i learn on a point and shoot/35mm? heck yes i did. but there is a time and place to learn, and at a drag strip behind barriers, autocrosses, etc are the place to learn how to shoot. im sorry, but cars sliding somewhat controlled around a course (esp an amature event) is not a place a person should learn how to shoot. what it boils down to, ive been taking trackside photos (drag, drift, road race, etc etc) for nearly 10 years and ive never been hit. so that must be saying something about my judgement.


b) ive never stood on a clipping point with my 17-40. i know exactly what you were talking about and it was an opposite side transition. was it still safe? probably not, it was my judgement. numerous times when i saw the cars approaching i stepped back to make sure there was no reason i would get hurt. over the wall at long beach? you mean when they were traveling away from me at 15 mph between me and a 4 foot thick concrete wall?

c) where am i knit picking FD? all i said was i dont think people should be out there with point and shoots. Yes i WAS a specialized site...... to start....... but has grown much more then that as you know. i went from this little site to being an pretty high ranking supplier of FD media online, 450,000+ hits a day on my "personal" site and my pictures around personal and team sites on the net proves it. knowing ryan when i use to get my HIN media passes from him in 01-03 helped "remember" when it was time to start with Formula D. Do I appreciate the opportunity? Of course I do, which is why ive helped them out anyway i could to promote their events by putting flyers etc on my site and asking for nothing in return.

has it helped me get gigs with other companies? sure it does, but what it boils down to is: I go to these events not caring if i make a SINGLE dime, all expenses are funded by me. I do it because I love shooting drifting more then any other form of racing, and to give back to the people around the world thru my shots. if i can get one person to say "awesome shots!" then thats payment enough for me

is it nice to sell coverage? of course it is, its nice to offset the costs sometimes, but it isnt expected.

do i make a single dollar after spending nearly $100 in gas to go to and from YOUR events? no. did i expect any? no. i was simply trying to promote a friend and further grassroots drifting.

[scir16v]

Here's what this all boils down to.

Someone got hit. Not good, hope he gets better.

The driver fells pretty bad about. It happens sometimes in motorsports, very unfourtunate.

I don't care what anyone says about all of this, or what is going to picked apart from my post.

The blame lies in 2 places. It sux that there has to be a blame, but there is some to distribute. The photographer is at fault for not keeping his attention towards the track(I can only gather this from what I've read on here.) He should've have been more aware that the possibility exists that a vehicle can lose control at any moment, and it is absolutely unpredictable where it will go.

The organizers are at fault for not taking the extra consideration of where they're media people were positioned throughtout the track layout. Knowing full well that any driver(pro and amatuer alike) can lose control of their vehicle at any time, and go anywhere possible in a split second. They should have thought about that chance, and taken the precautions to ensure the safety of the people near the track by providing spotters for the photographers and/or K-rails for the photographers to stand behind.



Through all of this, just think if it wasn't a photographer, but a spectator. Either way, they could face nasty lawsuits, and will face higher insurance rates or never to be insured again. It will also raise insurance rates for other organizers no matter what. Because this has been played out on many public outlets local and abroad.


So you guys can sit here and argue all you want, it's not going to change the inveitable, which is less events. Not because of accidents, but because of cost to run events.

[NOPITECH]

This is for you Kiddynomite.

You say that the NOPI events are run poorly and are unsafe. I call *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* *Censored**Censored**Censored* on you and your event planning knowledge and your knowledge of safety in motorsports. I do not know you, but based off the crap you are spewing and your overall superiority complex, I am glad that I do not know you.

I have attached some reference pictures for you to view while you wait on the Snap On tool (you know, the one that helps pull your head out of your *Censored**Censored**Censored*) you ordered to arrive. As you can see, all NOPI events have barricades between the cars and the spectators. There are areas designated for photographers, and there are NOPI staff as well as track staff around the drift venue during the demos.

On a side note, in 2006 there were no Announcers injured, Drivers injured, or spectators injured at a NOPI event. However, there were a few cones killed, lots of tires shredded, an barrier roughed up here and there, and now your feeling crushed. So in general, it was an awesome year, and we would like to thank Dan and Tracy from Drift Fury and Batlground, Andy Sapp, Aaron Sanford, Ernie Manasala from NOS Energy Drinks.

As far as this past weekend goes, I was not there. So I can not really comment on what happened, but it is unfortunate that it did happen.
I do know that Tracy is a safety *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored*, and she and Dan where part of the safety set up for our events.

Phoenix, AZ.


Valdosta, GA


St. Louis

St. Louis - Behind the barriers

Rockingham, NC.


Atco, NJ


Epping, NH


Knoxville, TN

Atlanta, GA.

[Mike Peters]

The organizers are at fault for not taking the extra consideration of where they're media people were positioned throughtout the track layout. Knowing full well that any driver(pro and amatuer alike) can lose control of their vehicle at any time, and go anywhere possible in a split second. They should have thought about that chance, and taken the precautions to ensure the safety of the people near the track by providing spotters for the photographers and/or K-rails for the photographers to stand behind.

everyone keeps bringing up krails.

show me in the insurance policy where it says anything about krails at amateur solo events. wheel to wheel is a different story but there wasnt any of that going on now was there?

show me any amateur parking lot event with krails.

even kidynomite admitted they dont use them.

here are the only events ive ever seen krails used i can remember
formula d

oval tracks/road courses with built in barricades.




wow, thats it. is everyone done with this krail double standard being held here? every organizer knows krails = $$$$$ which costs the drivers $$$. people whine/moan about event entry fees now, imagine if you added krails.

then you people would whine about a car hitting the krail. hate to break it to you, but this is motorsports. i can think of 20 wrecks at amateur events in the last 6 months off the top of my head, IT HAPPENS. drivers LOSE CONTROL and sadly people dont pay attention. im honestly shocked it took this long for the inevitable combination of these two events. people get injured/hurt/killed at auto-x/ hpde / oval track / whatever motorsports events. it happens. it sucks, and shoudl always be looked at as a how does this not happen again situation, but some of you naive fools acting like this is something revolutionary are nothing more than naive fools for not seeing this coming eventually. eventually im sure someone in drifting will die. welcome to motorsports, its the side nobody wants to look at, but its reality. bad stuff happens, and when what you do involves cars sliding around out of control guess what, BAD STUFF HAPPENS.

now realistically, drift fury did all they could to prevent this REALISTICALLY. if you disagree with this statement you are stating that every single drift event to ever take place until the apocolypse should have krails for ever single photographer, maybe babysitters as well. this is not something realistically feasable without nearly doubling the price of entry fees.


what it basically boils down to is this, and honestly this thread is going nowhere unless you have something to add to this right here.

drift fury gave the guy a spotter, with a radio. they gave him a set of rules. they gave him a vest. this is way more than ive seen from many other event organizers in this country.realistically what more could you ask from them?

Through all of this, just think if it wasn't a photographer, but a spectator. Either way, they could face nasty lawsuits, and will face higher insurance rates or never to be insured again. It will also raise insurance rates for other organizers no matter what. Because this has been played out on many public outlets local and abroad.


So you guys can sit here and argue all you want, it's not going to change the inveitable, which is less events. Not because of accidents, but because of cost to run events.

the spectators were at least 100' off the track. and you just posted a bunch of rumors, lies, and opinions. insurance hasnt gone up, i honestly doubt it will. does insurance go up every time someone backs into a poll in a parking lot at an arena?

every time a car hits the event organizer's trailer?

how about every time someone drops their camera out the window?

what about when cars catch on fire?

with your logic. i saw an explorer dart across eight lanes of traffic on fowler avenue yesterday in tampa, didnt see the corolla coming at it, the corolla hit it, the exploder flipped and landed on a side street. because of that guy my insurance is giong to go up. thats about how moronic your logic is.

on a side note, no claims have been filed with insurance afaik. and guess what, and every event organizer knows this whether they want to admit it or not.

krails arent required by insurance for this type of event, its all basic paperwork and basic rules, all of which were followed. *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* happens, everyone knows *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* happens, including the insurance , which is why they exist in the 1st place, and which is why they have an incident report form, which has also been taken care of

so again please,

IF ANYONE ELSE HAS ANYTHING TO "CONTRIBUTE" THINK ABOUT THIS



drift fury gave the guy a spotter, with a radio. they gave him a set of rules. they gave him a vest. this is way more than ive seen from many other event organizers in this country.realistically what more could you ask from them?

[kidynomite]

Krails arent the one and only way to protect a photographer. Another way is moving the photographers. We don't use krails because our fans are way too far to be hit. There are k-rails at one of our venues it protects the spectators sitting in the stands. They aren't ours but they are the tracks, and they are in a great position. We have had maybe 2 people hit them.

There are some behind the haybales



With our venues that dont have them we don't allow people to stand at an apex or stand in zones where the probability is higher to be hit. We havent had any injuries, no close calls, no need for extra money to be spent, and it works. It takes a while for a photographer to see that, he will notice on the first mistake, but that first mistake might be his last. As a coordinator you should be able to know where people are going to crash or lock up thier brakes. If you can't see that then maybe apoint someone else to to say where is a good and bad spot.


I love how everyone is getting so angered but seems to not want to help the situation at hand. I have yet to see what anyone arguing against me that is willing to do something to prevent another incident, I have given you a few easy ways that seem to be working for our events (that you now know are real...), if you don't want to spend the money then you aren't going to get superb pictures, oh well, deal with it. You can't have it all.



For your pleasure I will shutup now, we will just have to let actions speak.

[Mike Peters]

So you can or can't think of a safe zone?

dude, if you think anything is ever safe in life you are truly an idiot. practicing safety to the highest attainable level is one thing, but complete pure realistic safety at any auto event is something that can only be realistic in your own mind. you have automobiles pushing limits, something is going t happen eventually. even with krails people still get hurt sometimes, its an auto event



is this a safe zone? thats you at one of your safe events in case you forgot.

if you want this pure blissful safety you speak of, die and go to Heaven.

if you want to be the safest you can at a motorsports event, stay at home. hope it doesnt collapse, a tree doesnt fall on it, tornado, lightning strike. or go to the track and stay in the spectator area, (which isnt even safe, spectators die sometimes). hope a car/debris doesnt come over/thru the barrier. if your feeling ballsy, stand next to the track. theres nothing safe about any of this. however, you can try to make it the safest by 1) keeping your head up and paying attention, 2) if possible put a safety barrier(s) between you and whats on track. but this concept of safe zone needs to stay in your imagination or on the internet, because if you think anything close exists in real life you are nothing more than a niave fool. nothing might have happened yet, but something could happen alwyas. those chances are multiplied infinately when you omit #1 and let your guard down. but id like to see your "safety zones" you speak of that are "on track"

Don't need them, we use real tracks not lots.

you are very lucky, 99% of the rest of this country doesnt have that luxury

where are your safe zones, i want pictures. what type of barrier is between these safe zones and the track,since you are so target fixated on how drift fury was lacking barriers, lets see what barriers you use.

We have nobody standing in any places where they can be hurt (yet we still get some great pics). We also don't have anyone sitting at apexes of corners to snap a pic 10 feet from the drivers.

i want pics of where your photographers are put. and track layout. somoene can always get hurt. whether its a car going way off track in a parking lot, or a throttle calbe sticking on entry, or a 350z flying off into a tree over the curb. denying that something can and will go wrong is ignorant.

They aren't on trial here, they don't have a lot of "hearsay" about their events being unsafe. They must be doing something right

funny, you seem to be the only one fighting your case in this thread...i wouldnt call that a lot.

I do not understand.

its liek safe zones, it just doesnt make any sense to the other person

I am not reffering to him looking like he is getting hit, if I was his leg would have been broken in the pic. I am speaking of where he is in general, its not the greatest location for a photographer, a car can clear 30-40 feet at the snap of a finger.

at that location i highly doubt it, since i know/drove/saw other people drive that track. even if so, where he is there would have been plenty of time to get out of the way as long as they are paying attention

I am annoying the hell out of you, and thats fine with me. Most people have probably already given up reading this thread. The only people debating with me are people who gain from Drift Fury events (photographers, drivers, demo drivers, etc).

ugh, this is the dumbest argument you have presented so far. even dumber than your magic solve all k barrier when you dont even practice what you preach. ive reported safety shortcomings at events i have staffed before. trust me if i saw something that bothered me id have no problem coming out and stating what i wanted to say. i didnt see anything they did wrong here, so im standing up for them.

[b]I know I am not the only one who feels this is a tragedy at the fault of Drift Fury, I have had random people talk to me from other organizations who are on my side. Whether or not they post is thier own choice, it doesn't change that something needs to be done.[/quote]

what does need to be done? you talk a lot but you cant put it down plain and simple. you chose to stnad up for whatever you beleive in, and you have these mystical other people that you claim do the same. your doing a lot of preacing from a 1/2 legged pedastal. so you put the blame soley on drift fury? what if a photographer at your event wasnt paying attention, and a car barrelled off track and hit him while he had his back tuned to the track? oh wait, that cant happen because you have "safe" zones.

There are rules on tracks for reasons.

that obviously werent being followed.

All you are managing to tell me is that hitting people is ok because its a track. I would love to see how your attitude explains stuff to insurance companies

im not saying its okay, im saying inevitably its going to and does happen. people die working corners. everything should be looked at as realistically how do you solve this problem. all you do is point fingers and try to act like it never happens, and preach about "safe zones"

offer up a realistic solution. and remember, every time you scrutinize not having krails etc, your stepping on a lot more toes than drift fury, more like every amateur sancitoning body, as well as the stated policy of your own insurance carrier

All you have managed to do is nitpick each of my posts and posts replies at what you can respond to. There is nothing I need from you since you have nothing to do with them.

i think ive nitpicked at every single word or your jargon filled posts.

If anything is taken out of this thread other than you and I both want the last word.

no, id just like either words of how to solve the problem, or no words at all.

I hope it is that Drift Fury makes some changes. If insurance is brought into this (found out they use the same insurance we do). I hope they do realize that Drift Fury does not represent the standards of safety that all the other drift organizations that they insure follows.

you show me one part of the insurance safety requirements that were not followed. i know the policy, and whether everyone admits it everyone uses k&k. everyone. everyone knows the polciy, everone knows the rules and requirements. who choses to follow them is another thing, but DF followed every little detail perfectly. but welcome to real life, *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* happens, thats why there is insurance in the 1st place. they know eventually something is giong to happen when you have a bunch of cars zipping around near humans, while it sucks its eventually going to happen. thats why k&k exists.

Note the marks in the corner of the picture and lack of any barriers

what barriers do you use?

To prevent this what are you going to do? Are you going to tell them to keep their eyes on the car? I think that is already said, I hope he was told that previously. If he wasn't there is your problem, right back at Drift Fury...

its not my event. what do you tell peopel at your events?

"your in a safe zone, if you feel like it, your more than welcome to sleep as its a safe zone but try to pay attention if you feel like it, if not its okay its a safe zone"

If he was, then he didnt listen, what are the chances of another photographer not listening to get that better shot. Very likely, what are you going to do about that, just let them get hit until you run out of venues? Or punish 10 camera men and tell them to move back and never go past this line...

how do you run your events

"stay in the safe zone, its perfectly safe"

what venues have they lost? or are you just ASSuming things? ive been to events where people were KILLED. lost their life. game over. guess what, those events happened the year after, and after and after. so far you are assuming, but ive been to events from nascar to auto-x where much much worse things have happened. they are called accidents. they are looked at, things are improved, events continue. if youd like to continue being a pessimistic little whiney double standard pregnant dog, then please do so, but at least have some realistic point of veiw and constructive to contribue to this thread. so far you've preached about how you have safe zones, and your assumptions of what was said/went on based on very limited 80th party perspective, and pictures you found where you cant tell wtf is going on.

Stay in specific areas, we have a few pro photographers they are aware of where they can go. If they want to go somewhere they ask a staff member, staff knows where they can or cannot go, its simple.

are all of your staff members equpped with radios? what about vests? spotters? drift fury had all of those items..

www.clubfr.net we run under drift association

im suprised by that.

Before noon only instructors can ride along, after noon its open, but the starters can stop whom they want

its open? wow how do you control waivers/wristbands. even drift fury doesnt allow that, drivers only. too bad they are unsafe about everything, whats k&k policy on that?

Only with cage and door bars, also need to be an "advanced driver", also left at the discretion of those participating in the tandem, also left at the discretion of the starter.

funny, sorting thru pics on your site i see several tandems taking place with cars i see that dont have cages. DF doesnt do tandem in the 1st place, but then again they are "unsafe"

What do those Qs have to do with anything? I am not a hypocrite if that's what you are thinking...

less thinking, more saying. so far you accuse them of not using krails.

you dont use krails.

they have a much more strict policy on ride alongs.

they dont allow tandem in the 1st place anymore.

how truly unsafe they are compared to you.

Now go ahead and nit pick.

done.



heres a challenge for you myself and everyone in the drifting community.

to keep it simple and cut down on the BS in this thread. everything else aside

in three lines or less, how can drift fury improve upon their safety to prevent future occurances as what happened last saturday from a realistic perspective? keep in mind realistic. partnering with kinder-kare, and installing soft walls, barriers, and helicopters that take off with a rope attatched to photographers that arent paying attention is not realistic. realistic is like following insurance policy (which was done). 3 lines or less.

most importantly how are you looking to improve your events safety, and the overall safety in drifting? 3 lines or less.

[nxt774]

is this a safe zone? thats you at one of your safe events in case you forgot.




HAHA OWNED

[NOPITECH]

Mike, You and Andy both make awesome and completely valid points.

Our motorsports insurance only requires us to keep a 10 foot buffer between cars competing and the spectators. We carry a very large policy as you might assume, and they never mention what type of barrier or the amount of barrier. So where does everyone come off with insurance requires Krails and barriers???? What I have seen in the pictures from Drift Fury events, they have the crowd back from the track more than 10 feet. They provided spotters for the photographers, and corner workers on track.

I am sure that more can always be done to help with the safety issues at events, but at what point would the grass roots racers quit coming? Now they pay $90.00 to drift, and spectators pay $5.00 to watch. If you have the ambulance on site full time, and you have 2000 linear feet of barrier at $5-7.00 a linear foot your cost sky rocket. Drifting at these events would probably be in the range of $250.00 for smaller promoters on smaller events. That would also cost the spectator fee to go up at the same time.
It is differant if you are running tandoms, or huge speeds, but one car at a time, and lower speeds?

Like I said earlier, I was not there, so I can not side or place blame on anyone, but what happens when a drag car crashes and gets into the crowd? What happens when a Nascar car does the same? They try to make the cars and the facilities safer, not place blame on the sanctioning body or the driver for not doing enough? Just look back to Dale Earnhardts death at Daytona. Everyone remember that? Now the guys at Hans are millionaires because most sanctioning bodies make the HANS device mandatory in the faster classes or circuits. Accidents are horrible, but unfortunately in motorsports they are a necassary evil. Without accidents, there would be no progression in safety and safety standards for motorsports. Sad but true.

When you enter a motorsports venue to compete, or work, or as part of the press you have to sign the track release waiver. This states that the orginazation, the drivers, the facilities are not responsible for any accident that may happen while you are at the event. At alot of the venues we go to, you have to sign the same waiver and have an armband to get near the track.(I.E. crews, families, sponsors, vendors)

Guys don't get use to replys like this from me, I am generally a real asshole on forums.

[markshatchi86]

even with krails people still get hurt sometimes, its an auto event

i shot st pete GP last year and watched a car smack the wall and push the rail onto the photogs foot. imagine what a huge block of concrete on your foot feels like.

this is why even when you have k rails, your not suppose to stand right up on them

[Brian]

Oh I decided not to read any of this at all.


I shoot pictures when I can at events... when I'm not driving.

I have a favorite event that I shot pictures at. No barriers. No anything. It ruled. I was standing as close to the cars as possible to get cool pictures. It worked perfect. I never got hit.

I like the events like the old days. It's drifting... no need for safety.

Remember when people could hang over the wall at Ebisu only to move a fraction of a second before they got hit. *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored*ing amazing.

Now I get to wait for slapshotnerd to reply to my specific post and try to put me down.

.....


oh edit - Simba rules.