Still having Cobra sho burnouts?

[mr bruce]

The cops at the cobra show endorce this stupidity, some were clocked on cop radar at 80+ no? One injury or death and EVERYBODY connected to the sho is liable under Ohio law. better cancel your city street burnout sho.

[Roscoe]

It certainly sounds stupid to me. Now running the old course at Watkins Glen, through the streets, is another story.

Roscoe

[John McMahon]

Originally Posted by Roscoe

It certainly sounds stupid to me. Now running the old course at Watkins Glen, through the streets, is another story.

Roscoe

No its not OK smartass......They do it once a year for the Zippo Classic and it is supposed to be a parade through town...unfortunately it too has gotten out of control, folks drinking in the bars and then in the parade, they will fall back and then gun it. Last year they ejected a Group 6 driver from the reenactment / parade because of this foolish behavior and they also refused to let him run in the race.

[MaSnaka]

Tragic! It always seems like a good idea at the time. I'm not so sure about that dragster though. Remember the famous last words..."Hold my beer and watch this". It does take a lot of self dicipline when people are cheering you to light'em up. That driver should have known better than anyone that that was way too much car for that stunt.

[lamaluv]

Originally Posted by mrmustang

I'll sit back on this one and await someone to post one of the following:

1: "I know what I'm doing and can more than handle my cobra".
2: "It can never happen to me, my car is 100% safe"
3: "Helmet and safety equipment, why does my passenger or I need that crap"
4: "It's a government conspiracy, nobody can tell me how to drive my car, especially at a charity event"
5: "It's safe, or why would they allow us to continue to do it year after year".
6-99: Feel free create your own excuses to try and justify what has the potential for a loss of life, after all, you are safe and secure in your car(s) while others do not have that luxury.

You want to race, you want to do burnouts to stroke your ego and the crowds, do it at a track where your car has to pass a tech inspection before it's allowed to be raced or exhibit any speed passes just for the crowd(s).

The life you save might be that of a loved one, or your own.

Just my two cents worth, I'll sit back and watch the fireworks now from those who fall into lines 1-5 and above.


Bill S.

Bill we have already seen most of your 5 posted already. For every 10 cars that underdstand to be safe there is that one person that has to impress or outdue every one else. At the Cobra Bash last year we started doing burnouts in the parking garage after returning from the cruise. This was a spontaneous and impromtu event and NOT santioned by the event management. One participant gut sideways and almost hit the concrete side wall. No spectators were close, but it sure would have pissed off his insurance company as well as the hotel and could have ruined the event for everyone. Might have had to been looking for a new venue this year. I will add that I am guilty of being a participant in the burn outs . I just couldn't resist the urgings of my fellow macho Cobra enthusiasts.

Dick

[avanti-176]

Originally Posted by kountzecobra

Aren't these types of things necessary to "Thin The Herd?"

Considering the only people killed or hurt were innocent bystanders there to see a parade for a children's charity I think this is a pretty ignorant statement.

Even though I understand the attempt at humor I think it is poor timing.

Dan

[Roscoe]

HEY MCMAHON!

I even heard they ejected a guy that had a sheep in his car............

Roscoe

[Roscoe]

A man has got to know his limitations......Clint Eastwood

I recall the days when I used to wreck dive off Jersey. We had a guy we used to call 'macho diver'. He would brag that he never came out of a wreck the same way he went in. Well, he didn't come up one day and they found him three days later in the 'Pinta'.

Roscoe

[RedBarchetta]

This whole situation just goes to show you that even the best laid out plans can backfire.

In this case, the guy stayed into the throttle well beyond the safe zone and look what happened? The city will get its azz handed to it in the form of multiple lawsuits (and all the townspeople will suffer for years after, as less money will be available for general maint, etc.). The driver will lose everything he owns because of the forthcoming civil lawsuits that will undoubtedly come from the same victims' families. And the fallout will send the wrong message to every other city that currently manages or has planned to manage similar events in the future (i.e. London).

We all lose. My sympathy to the families that lost loved ones on a day when they were just out having a good time and taking part in what really is a good cause (charity car show for kids).

-Dean

[DAVID GAGNARD]

The video clip I was referring to is the same one John McMahon posted..........thanks Johnny Mac.......

As I said earlier, $hit happens, and usually at the worst time in the worst place............doing a burnout or 1/8 mile run on a city street lined with people is just plain stupid and asking for trouble..........

U-joints break, half shafts break, throttles stick,tires blow out and any one of a thousand other mechanical things can happen to send a speeding car into a crowd of people........that's why all race tracks from NASCAR down to your saturday night drag strip have guard rails and catch fences!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure the driver of the car never thought anything would/could go wrong, but it did!!!!!!!!!, mechanical failure, his fault, nobodys fault, those people including 3 kids are still DEAD and nothing will ever bring them back!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David

[mrmustang]

Originally Posted by lamaluv

Bill we have already seen most of your 5 posted already. For every 10 cars that underdstand to be safe there is that one person that has to impress or outdue every one else.
Dick

Yup and some people will get it and others won't. It's the one's who won't that I feel sad for and hope that they are nowhere near where I will be at any given time in my life.


Bill S.

[Don]

New York Times :

June 18, 2007

Death Toll Climbs to 6 After Stunt by Race Car

By THEO EMERY
NASHVILLE, June 17 — The death toll increased overnight to six after a race car spun out of control at a children’s charity event in Selmer, Tenn., state highway officials said Sunday.

The car, a modified Corvette, was performing what is known as an exhibition burnout, in which the drivers rev the engine and spin the car’s wheels to create smoke and noise before speeding down the track, according to the company that sanctioned the race event, AMS Pro Modified Series. The exhibition was part of a three-day event that included a parade. A blocked-off road functioned as the racetrack for Saturday night’s event, held about 80 miles east of Memphis.

The car lost traction and hit a utility pole before crashing into bystanders, a company statement said.

Amateur video footage shows the car catapulting down the road, trailing an enormous plume of white smoke, then losing control and skidding off the pavement. As thick smoke envelopes the scene, screaming can be heard and spectators begin to run toward the crash site.

Neal Burks, the Selmer police chief, told The Associated Press that “bodies were flying into the air when it happened.”

The cause of the crash is under investigation, the highway patrol said. The highway patrol said there was no guardrail in the section of roadway where the car plunged into the crowd. The dead included three teenagers, Raven Griswell, of Finger, Tenn., and Scarlett Replogle, of Selmer, both 15 years old, and Kimberly A. Barfield, 17, of Adamsville, Tenn., the highway patrol said.

A total of 21 other people were sent to five hospitals, with injuries ranging from critical to minor. Mike Browning, a highway patrol spokesman, said the number of fatalities was expected to rise.

The car that went out of control was approved by the National Hot Rod Association. Its driver was Troy W. Critchley of Wylie, Tex., the highway patrol said. Mr. Critchley suffered minor injuries.

The charity holding the event, Cars for Kids, has raised money for injured and disabled children since the son of the founder, Larry Price, suffered a head injury 18 years ago. The organization’s first fund-raiser was held in Selmer in 1990. The group accepts donations of used cars.

The group issued a statement expressing “its deepest regrets and sympathy to all the victims and their families” involved the accident.

“At this time the future of Cars for Kids is undecided,” the group said.

[MaSnaka]

I know very little about burn-outs but, do you think it was supposed to be one of those like they do before a race to warm the tires...perhaps forgetting to put the water on the ground first, the car just hooked up and suprised everyone as it sped down the street? Truley a sad day.

[Roger Vincent]

You are right Bill. I hear these rationalizations repeatedly. It's sad, beyond comprehension. If it were my child that had been killed, I believe my life would end as well.

Roger

Originally Posted by mrmustang

I'll sit back on this one and await someone to post one of the following:

1: "I know what I'm doing and can more than handle my cobra".
2: "It can never happen to me, my car is 100% safe"
3: "Helmet and safety equipment, why does my passenger or I need that crap"
4: "It's a government conspiracy, nobody can tell me how to drive my car, especially at a charity event"
5: "It's safe, or why would they allow us to continue to do it year after year".
6-99: Feel free create your own excuses to try and justify what has the potential for a loss of life, after all, you are safe and secure in your car(s) while others do not have that luxury.

You want to race, you want to do burnouts to stroke your ego and the crowds, do it at a track where your car has to pass a tech inspection before it's allowed to be raced or exhibit any speed passes just for the crowd(s).

The life you save might be that of a loved one, or your own.

Just my two cents worth, I'll sit back and watch the fireworks now from those who fall into lines 1-5 and above.


Bill S.

[CHANMADD]

That was no burn out.He was trying to run 1/8 with tyres smoking the whole way.Bloody stupid if you ask me.Those drag cars rely on chutes to stop them,they don,t even have front brakes.Try do 100 mph and slamming on the back brakes only ,That's what happens.This guy should hev e known that and never done more than a standing burnout.This kind of thing ruins it for everyone else!!

[Don]

From USA Today:

Tenn. officials consider whether to file charges in dragster deaths
By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY
SELMER, Tenn. — State officials in Tennessee said Monday they are investigating whether an accident involving a dragster that spun out during a charity parade, killing six, warrants criminal charges against the driver.
"If I have evidence of a criminal offense … I will charge it," said Mike Dunavant, district attorney general for McNairy County.

At least 20 people were injured, including the driver, professional drag racer Troy Warren Critchley of Wylie, Texas.

The crash occurred at a Cars for Kids charity show, an annual event in the small town of Selmer, Tenn., 80 miles east of Memphis. Drivers do crowd-pleasing burnouts — spinning the tires to make them heat up and smoke — during a parade.

Mike Browning, a spokesman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol said the investigation is in its early stages and will look at "the driver, the car itself, and conditions."

Bereaved family members were upset that no one has been held responsible.

"I want them to look at why they let people stand that close on the side of a road while a car that had no business on a city street plowed into and kill them," said Tracy Harper of Finger, Tenn.

Harper is the aunt of two sisters who died, Raven Griswell, 15, and Nichole Griswell, 19. She said the girls went to the event every year.

"They've always had a burnout part of it, but I don't think they've had a car this menacing, a car of this kind of power that could do what that car could do," she said.

Amateur video of the crash, broadcast on WMC-TV in Memphis, showed the car's engine revving loudly before the vehicle sped down the highway. After a few hundred feet, the smoking car skidded off the road and into the crowd.

The Patrol's criminal investigative division questioned Critchley and his team Sunday and they have been cooperative, Browning said.

Dunavant said charges could range "from some type of traffic offense to homicide, and anything in between," but that it's too early to speculate whether any are warranted.

Investigators are also looking into policy decisions made by city officials overseeing the event, Dunavant said.

"My understanding was that security and safety there was the Selmer police department, the city of Selmer," Dunavant said.

Rodger Pitchford, 18, a spectator who suffered a broken right leg and chipped vertebrae, said two police cars drove down the parade route and advised spectators to move farther back from the road. People heeded the warning initially then moved back up for a better look, he said.

"It was our choice to stand there," he said. "We shouldn't have been that close. If we had stayed back, I don't think that many people would have been injured because we would have had time to move out of the way."

[rschoeni]

Originally Posted by Don

From USA Today:
Bereaved family members were upset that no one has been held responsible.

"I want them to look at why they let people stand that close on the side of a road while a car that had no business on a city street plowed into and kill them," said Tracy Harper of Finger, Tenn.

Huh? If you want to be a spectator at displays such as this one, take responsibility for your own safety. Don't put your kid in front of you on the curb so that they get a better view and then point the finger at somebody else when a tragedy results.
_________
Bob Schoeni
FFR4625K

[Sal Gerace]

Originally Posted by rschoeni

Huh? If you want to be a spectator at displays such as this one, take responsibility for your own safety. Don't put your kid in front of you on the curb so that they get a better view and then point the finger at somebody else when a tragedy results.
_________
Bob Schoeni
FFR4625K

I think that people generally feel that if it is being allowed, then it is safe. A lot of spectators just don't realize the danger in these events!

[427sharpe]

Never having been to the London show, and not familiar with the area...could the organizers find a local TRACK to stage the event, rather than public streets? No matter how you look at it, it seems flat asinine to do these types of stunts with people lined up close by. It is amazing that this hasn't happened earlier. I also agree with Bob...if you decide to stand 8 feet away from a car doing a burn you take your life in your hands. Your responsibility.
Still, all very sad.

[Excaliber]

It is scary seeing the LCS burnouts on main street, something I've always worried about. SO easy for something to go wrong, perhaps they should consider more safety precautions.

At the drag strip I lost traction when I 'nailed' 2nd gear in the ERA and dam near lost control of the car. Surprised? I was ASTONISHED how quickly it can all go bad. Dry track, straight ahead, making all the right moves. What the heck??? Must have shifted on a slippery spot I guess, stuff happens...