Yesterday I was having dinner at a restaurant with some friends and they were broadcasting the IndyCar race from Texas on their big screen TVs ... when this incident happened, I was practically jumping out of my seat, and my “get her out ... GET HER OUT ... !!! GET HER THE F OUT !!! ” comments prompted one my dinner mates to try to calm me down. What a fiasco! And this from a “pro” response team!!
But at a minimum, it does go to show how quickly disaster unfolds in a fire ... practice getting out of your car!! This happened at a PRO race, for gawd sakes!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIatXMiyZ6w
Below are four of the comments from “Motorsportforums.com” (under the very appropriate thread title “you have GOT to be kidding me”) that are bang-on about the unbelievably bad response by the safety team:
“Simona de Silvestro crashed against the wall and her car caught fire. As she slid down the track, the fire got worse. The safety crew pulled up, stared at her... stared at her some more... pulled a fire hose out... stared at her... tried to get the fire hose working (but didn't)... stared at her some more... decided that she was probably well done enough, so one of them finally started trying to get her out of the car... half-assed it... finally some guy with a fire extinguisher that he probably got on sale at Walmart starts tinkling on the flames a little bit. Luckily she just burned her hand a bit (from pushing herself up & out of the car). It appeared that she did more to get herself out than any of those clowns did. That was without a doubt one of the worst displays that I have ever seen from a safety crew. And I've seen bad crashes where the "safety crew" was made up of local guys from the volunteer fire dept and the volunteer rescue squad. Firings are in order. Without a doubt. Who is in charge of the safety crew these days, the series or the track? Who do these bozos work for???”
“I watched this again on Youtube and the head-collar was certainly the problem. Once she came to rest, she had the steering wheel off immediately, and was then trying to remove the head-collar but it wouldn't move. After several failed attempts, it looks like, eventually, the right-hand side of the collar snapped and she could sort of get out of the car. She would've been able to get out herself, I think, at this stage but because two or three safety workers started pulling on her before she was fully 'up' from her seat, that made it worse for a few more seconds. She was being yanked left when she needed to come up first and that's why it took her so long to get out. The safety team has so much to answer for this. Absolutely appalling. If that had been me, I'd have been so angry. Simona's reaction afterwards showed what a true professional she is. She was almost blaming herself for her failure to exit the car quickly. Not a lot of things in IndyCar get to me, but this most certainly has and I think something MUST be done. Rant over. ”
“Also, reminds me of Carpenter's crash at Chicago 2008. On fire, but couldn't get out until head-collar was removed. I understand this is a safety innovation, but I've always thought this would, unnecessarily, delay a driver from exiting the car. A driver should be able to remove the steering wheel, unbuckle and climb out. The radio. drinks pipe, air pipe should just disconnect if your in a hurry to get out. What I don't understand is that why do some drivers HAVE to remove the head-collar to get out and others don't. EVERY driver should be able to get out of the car WITHOUT removing the head-collar because that wastes precious seconds as was evident with Simona. IndyCar officials MUST act over this so this doesn't happen again, or remind ALL drivers to exit the car, in a fire situation, WITHOUT trying to remove the head collar. This could have been a lot worse and HVM are absolutely spot-on with their criticism of the Safety team. They should publicly apologise as well.”
“she was lucky to have not been hurt worse. from the time the first responder had his foot on the pavement until she was out of the car was about 40 seconds....but she had already been in a car on fire for about another 25 seconds with the fire coming up into her face and on one side. time to second degree burn in a top rated suit under the SFI 3.2A/20, is 40 seconds . but a heavy and hot suit.
http://www.profoxracing.com/sfi.html
http://www.circletrack.com/featuredv...ps_advice.html
I do not believe most drivers wear anything more than a SFI 3.2A/5....which is good for about a whole 9 seconds before 2nd degree burns set in......
she was lucky the fire had not gotten down inside the leg and/or body area inside the cockpit, or she would be in serious or critical condition in a burn unit without question”
But at a minimum, it does go to show how quickly disaster unfolds in a fire ... practice getting out of your car!! This happened at a PRO race, for gawd sakes!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIatXMiyZ6w
Below are four of the comments from “Motorsportforums.com” (under the very appropriate thread title “you have GOT to be kidding me”) that are bang-on about the unbelievably bad response by the safety team:
“Simona de Silvestro crashed against the wall and her car caught fire. As she slid down the track, the fire got worse. The safety crew pulled up, stared at her... stared at her some more... pulled a fire hose out... stared at her... tried to get the fire hose working (but didn't)... stared at her some more... decided that she was probably well done enough, so one of them finally started trying to get her out of the car... half-assed it... finally some guy with a fire extinguisher that he probably got on sale at Walmart starts tinkling on the flames a little bit. Luckily she just burned her hand a bit (from pushing herself up & out of the car). It appeared that she did more to get herself out than any of those clowns did. That was without a doubt one of the worst displays that I have ever seen from a safety crew. And I've seen bad crashes where the "safety crew" was made up of local guys from the volunteer fire dept and the volunteer rescue squad. Firings are in order. Without a doubt. Who is in charge of the safety crew these days, the series or the track? Who do these bozos work for???”
“I watched this again on Youtube and the head-collar was certainly the problem. Once she came to rest, she had the steering wheel off immediately, and was then trying to remove the head-collar but it wouldn't move. After several failed attempts, it looks like, eventually, the right-hand side of the collar snapped and she could sort of get out of the car. She would've been able to get out herself, I think, at this stage but because two or three safety workers started pulling on her before she was fully 'up' from her seat, that made it worse for a few more seconds. She was being yanked left when she needed to come up first and that's why it took her so long to get out. The safety team has so much to answer for this. Absolutely appalling. If that had been me, I'd have been so angry. Simona's reaction afterwards showed what a true professional she is. She was almost blaming herself for her failure to exit the car quickly. Not a lot of things in IndyCar get to me, but this most certainly has and I think something MUST be done. Rant over. ”
“Also, reminds me of Carpenter's crash at Chicago 2008. On fire, but couldn't get out until head-collar was removed. I understand this is a safety innovation, but I've always thought this would, unnecessarily, delay a driver from exiting the car. A driver should be able to remove the steering wheel, unbuckle and climb out. The radio. drinks pipe, air pipe should just disconnect if your in a hurry to get out. What I don't understand is that why do some drivers HAVE to remove the head-collar to get out and others don't. EVERY driver should be able to get out of the car WITHOUT removing the head-collar because that wastes precious seconds as was evident with Simona. IndyCar officials MUST act over this so this doesn't happen again, or remind ALL drivers to exit the car, in a fire situation, WITHOUT trying to remove the head collar. This could have been a lot worse and HVM are absolutely spot-on with their criticism of the Safety team. They should publicly apologise as well.”
“she was lucky to have not been hurt worse. from the time the first responder had his foot on the pavement until she was out of the car was about 40 seconds....but she had already been in a car on fire for about another 25 seconds with the fire coming up into her face and on one side. time to second degree burn in a top rated suit under the SFI 3.2A/20, is 40 seconds . but a heavy and hot suit.
http://www.profoxracing.com/sfi.html
http://www.circletrack.com/featuredv...ps_advice.html
I do not believe most drivers wear anything more than a SFI 3.2A/5....which is good for about a whole 9 seconds before 2nd degree burns set in......
she was lucky the fire had not gotten down inside the leg and/or body area inside the cockpit, or she would be in serious or critical condition in a burn unit without question”