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We just had a long thread in which a lady parked her car in the travel lane to save some ducklings and her car was struck by a motorcycle and people died. We were told by most of you that it was her fault for being in the lane of traffic and that the motorcyclist was not at fault for hitting her, even though the car in front of him swerved to avoid her.
Now we have a guy walking with purpose into the lane of travel on a race track, the first car swerves to avoid and the second car hit him and you want to say in THIS case that it was NOT the fault of the person walking into traffic BECAUSE the second car was driven by a famous driver that a lot of you hate.
Hmmm.
Watching the video, the dude ran into traffic intentionally running in front of cars. Almost no other outcome could have occurred.
this doesn't apply to racing, but your lady parked in travel lane incident:
i was always taught that the driver behind is responsible for what happens in front, no matter what. the few exceptions to this i've seen is when a pedestrian literally walks out from a non visible place (say, between two parallel parked trucks) right in front of your car.
I know the law varies from state to state, but in PA, we were taught you had to have control of your car at all times. you hit something that's in front of you - it's your fault.
I just don't get how anyone can say he intentionally sideswiped him. He is pretty much going straight at that point. His car does a little fishtail when he RUNS DUDE OVER... not before.
yeah, the moment right before he hits the kid is when his car does that. that's kinda why people think he could have cut it "close" intentionally.
yeah, the moment right before he hits the kid is when his car does that. that's kinda why people think he could have cut it "close" intentionally.
Spend some time driving those cars then tell us how its done. Blip the throttle and make the rear come around to the left. That is how it works. That is why the tires are staggered in size.
Yup. The car in front of Tony swerves and suddenly Ward is darting down into Tony's car. Tony's car doesn't have time to do anything and then goes a little sideways as he hits Ward.
Dark suit, dark track, and darting in from the wing side of the car all adds up to tragedy, not malicious intent on TS's part.
i just watched a few more times. it appears as though the back right tire is what hit Ward. if that's what happened, then i'm in the camp of not intentional. it would be pretty tough to do that intentionally, but he may not have done enough to avoid him. i don't know. it's just terrible.
Spend some time driving those cars then tell us how its done. Blip the throttle and make the rear come around to the left. That is how it works. That is why the tires are staggered in size.
i've never driven those cars myself, but i've driven dirt track, and i've attended plenty at a track exactly like this one. plus i worked on a track for a few years in HS but completely different type of racing.
i have to wonder about all the tony stewart haters if they have any kind of racing experience at all, other than just watching races. have they ever been in a race car in full gear? have they ever noticed just how little vision they actually have especially when wearing a full faced helmet. have they ever driven a sprint car at night? have they ever driven a world of outlaws sprint car similar to the one pictured in another post? those wings kill a lot of visibility for the drivers.
tony stewart is an aggressive driver, that is why is is successful at racing. tony is also a very talented driver, again why he is successful at racing. but when someone does something stupid like walk out into the middle of the track wearing a black fire suit AT NIGHT, hidden by another car that barely misses him, and you expect stewart to be mr jedi knight and know what this kid is doing every minute and make moves accordingly?
tony is good, but he is not superman. its tragic what happened, but int he end it is an accident and nothing more.
i dont think people think he obviously did it on purpose because they don't like Stewart.
I don't think you know enough hard-core NASCAR driver Fanboys. Or, probably more accurate, maybe I know too many of them to be able to discount this line of thinking.
Quote:
But, watching the video, it's difficult to discount what we know about Stewart's history with irrational behavior on the track. So if there's any hint of him doing it purposely (i don't think anyone would think he intended to kill the guy though), then knowing his history doesn't help calm that hint down.
The difference is that while it's true that Stewart is an irrational, hot-headed douchebag on the track, his douchebaggery is usually unleashed on those who he feels he has been slighted by in some way. In this case, as someone mentioned earlier, he had no reason to have it in for this kid. And going probably 50+ mph in a vehicle with a limited field of vision on a dark track in a turn where his attention would be focused to the left and being approached from the right by a person dressed in black, he couldn't have gotten more than a split-second glimpse of the kid. And with that split-second glimpse he'd have no time to come to any conclusions as to why the kid was on the track before he was past him.
IMHO, it would require a pretty irrational subjective thinker to assume he did anything any more nefarious than misjudging the location of the kid when he got out of his field of vision and accelerated to get away from the situation too soon.
Too many "wannabees" in all forms of sports. Kids see stuff on TV and feel like they can emulate that behavior at the rookie level, and there will ne no consequences.
Well, in this case, there were consequences. Serious ones. All that can come of this now is a lesson that if you don't know what you are doing, follow the rules: unless the car is on fire or saturating you in hot/noxious fluids; stay in the car until a safety crew individual assists you out. Very little good can result, otherwise.
Is there anyone here who knows about this stuff who can post a photo or two from the driver's seat of these cars, so the rest of us can have a bit of an idea of what it's like? I did a quick google search and didn't find anything.
Is there anyone here who knows about this stuff who can post a photo or two from the driver's seat of these cars, so the rest of us can have a bit of an idea of what it's like? I did a quick google search and didn't find anything.
As you can see, visibility to the front-right is quite compromised. You can also see him wiping the dirt off his face shield at 1:21; no windshield on a dirt track is another factor to consider.
Last edited by Drover; 08-11-2014 at 11:52 AM..
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