A CASE FOR SAFETY STANDARDS AT RACE TRACKS
As I was surfing through the weekend's sprint car racing results, I came across a disturbing piece of video footage that caught my attention. The video was shot during the 50-lap Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour feature race at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas.
During the feature, Gary Wright's #9 Sprint Car was involved in a collision which caused his car to erupt into flames. Fortunately, the Hooks, Texas native escaped without injury.
In the world of racing, accidents will happen on the track. What made this footage disturbing, however, was what appeared to be a Fire and Rescue crew who were not properly equipped to handle a fire emergency had it got ugly. The people putting out the flaming Sprint Car with fire extinguishers appeared to be only wearing jeans and regular shirts.
They were clearly at risk. Where was THEIR protection from this fire?
What could have potentially happened had Gary Wright not been able to release himself from his harness?
WHO would have gone into that situation to help HIM out of the car?
I find it incredible that in 2012, we STILL have race tracks in North America where Fire and Rescue teams are not properly equipped to do their job completely and safely in all kinds of emergencies.
In this day and age, it is UNACCEPTABLE and IRRESPONSIBLE to allow this to happen.
Fire and Rescue at race tracks should always be a #1 priority to ensure the safety of ALL people on race night. Following this weekend's incident, perhaps it is time to establish a Safety Standard that must be adhered to by all operating speedways.
Saturday night's incident had the potential of being worse than it was. Much worse.
One life lost to negligence would be one life too many.
Any views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or persons written about in this post.
