First, I'd like to apologize for taking as much time off as I have from
3AM with Gus. Busy is an understatement when it comes to what has been on the family agenda this year but it took something like the horrible off-road crash that happened in the Mojave desert this past weekend to wake me up and get me going again.
What has and always will aggravate the hell out of me is stupid people. For the purpose of this article I'll narrow it down to the stupid things that stupid people say, and lately it seems to be spreading like an epidemic. People just don't think when they say things, or they feel that the garbage coming out of their skull cave truly has merit. Like politicians who never seem to be at a loss of ignorant words: "I smoked it but I didn't inhale", or Mark Chapman's insane reasons for killing John Lennon. Think of the moral fiber we're dealing with here and it's easy to base our comments on these individual's way of thinking but not when it comes to a good friend of one of the victims of the California 200 crash. This guy spoke out on NBC's Today Show this morning and had the audacity to place some of the blame in the driver's hands for his buddy's death. This is when I had to scream enough!
After all he looked like an intelligent individual, a nice person who truly cared for the well being of his deceased friend's family and I felt awful for them, him included. I don't know how I'd react if one minute I'm standing with my friend or family member watching a race and in an instant they're lying dead right next to me. What I do know is that I wouldn't say something as silly as "the drivers should slow down to somewhere around 20 or 30 miles per hour when they reach these stages that have fans lining the track". Earth to slow guy, YOU are on THEIR track! I'm just going to throw this out there but if you don't feel safe being that close to racing vehicles at speed then you should get your ass further away from them! I watched the video and nowhere did I see anyone with a gun to all of your heads making you stand where you were.
Seriously, you show up at a race with no guard rails, catch fences, concrete abutments, or any other means of keeping the vehicles on track and you think the drivers have some sort of responsibility to the crowd? If the crowds that attend these events had that little voice of reason talking in their head they wouldn't be standing at the road's edge while vehicles whistle past them at 80 miles per hour. We've seen this all too often in Europe with the WRC, and their jaded past has called for some changes in how the sport now handles crowds at these races. Until recent years, thousands of people would line the road side with most of them on the track surface until the cars would come through their stage. Then, like the parting of the Red Sea, people would retreat to the sides of the road just inches from the vehicles as they would fly by at very high speeds. Countless injuries and numerous deaths have occurred over the years and you would think that the organizers and promoters of the California 200 would have learned from something like this. Oh they state that people must be 50 feet from any vehicle traveling above 15mph, but it's one thing to talk about it and another to figure out a way to enforce it.
What happened this past weekend is a tragedy and regardless of what I or anyone else may think that these people did or didn't do, it doesn't lessen the fact that many innocent people were injured or killed. Good people who went there with just one intention- take in the sport they love and have a good time. But the simple missing ingredient here was common sense. It wasn't a speed limit imposed on drivers in certain areas. It was our ability as rational thinking human beings to analyze the situation, assess the risk, and adjust accordingly. But for some people it's much easier to be reactive and point fingers at others in times like this than to be proactive and avoid having things happen to us at all. Just listen to one spectator from Laguna Niguel. When asked about what she saw and her thoughts, she said "There were too many people, They all wanted to be close". "I didn't see the driver, he probably would have been killed by the crowd".
The prosecution rests.
When you visit a race track that does have all of the safety measures in place you still know things can go wrong. We've all seen Indy cars climb the fence at the Brickyard or a Top Fuel car explode and rain debris in the stands and in many instances people have gotten injured or even killed. We as fans (or participants) all run the risk of serious injury or even worse every time we set foot in a racing facility. The human body is no match for a vehicle of any size at any speed, and we all have to respect this fact and take every precaution available to ensure our safety and that of others. Sadly after this weekend it's a point all too well known now by people who may have forgotten otherwise.
