Horrific accident Lamborghini race car crash

ZBOYD

Looking up at the stars!
May 19, 2001
9,468
15
Cheshire
www.seatcupra.net
A Gallardo LP560-4 driven by Giorgio Bartocci racing in the Super Trofeo at Brno Czech Republic this weekend crashed heavily but then burst into the most horrific fireball.

He survived but is currently in intensive care, with serious burns and broken bones. :(

Its amazing that this guy survived at all given the incredibly poor response by fire crews who were using totally inadequate equipment. A member of his own pit crew can be seen sprinting across the circuit and risked his own life to drag the stricken driver from the inferno.

The FIA are going to investigate the terrible response.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/24/massive-gallardo-crash-in-super-trofeo-leaves-bartocc-in-intensi/
 

ZBOYD

Looking up at the stars!
May 19, 2001
9,468
15
Cheshire
www.seatcupra.net
The image at the top of the article is terrible, with him flailing out of the burning car, hope he pulls through but it sounds very touch and go at the moment. :(
 

traumapat

Leon Cupra IHI
Jul 24, 2005
5,925
4
sunny sussex
Fingers crossed for the driver.
Suprising when you think of the equipment and personel used to fight fuel fires like at an airport, yet in motorsport they still rely on a few co2 bottles.
 

ndbrgr

THFC
Jul 21, 2008
1,023
0
Kent
Looks like hes not the first person to lose it there, he seems to follow almost identical slide marks. Horrific crash.

What on earth were those marshals using? Probably would have been more effective to blow on it. With the high risk of fire, you'd expect them to be more prepared than that.
 

andycupra

status subject to change
The image at the top of the article is terrible, with him flailing out of the burning car, hope he pulls through but it sounds very touch and go at the moment. :(

when first saw that photo i thought its was an 'action' shot immediately after impact, but then i saw the empty fire extingisher on the tarmac next to the car.. so it may appear this was taken a good while after car had come to rest? scary. ***EDIT, after looking again it would appear that the fire extinguisher on the tarmac in the photo is from the car as the accident is still going on...
Massive impact.


A very bad accident.
It looks like he managed to hit the pit wall just where there is an opening which has made the accident much more horrific than it should have been and sadly a few metres after a tyre wall finishes. In fact it appears that the car pushed through the flimsy metal barrier on impact and pretty much straight into the corner/end of the solid concrete low level platform behind it.
Alot of safety gear on circuits apppears to be used assuming people crash entering or through a corner only. Many circuits are poor where people crash in unusual places, although on the exit of a corner isnt 'unexpected'.

The walls around pit entries and exits and pit straights have been a concern of mine for some time. When you view some of the circuits during racing there are some potentiallly horrific accidents waiting to happen if someone loses control entering the pit or simply losing control in a similair fashion to this while passing pit entries. Many have the end of the pit wall strutting out with nothing more than a handful of tyres.
Although i appreciate this is not the pit entry in this case.

Even in F1 which generally is a stickler for rules drivers openly cut in late across solid lines and race right to the pit area. Perhaps its time to enforce rules than mean you cannot cut in late or race so far into these areas.
Its also common for there to be no protection along the pit wall. Tricky.


Regards the response to the fire, while it wasnt good and clearly the equipment isnt up to the job, i suspect the response was no worse than you would see as most circuits. :( (however due to film being edited its not clear how long it took for first marshalls to reach the crash).
Mind you on the other hand alot of the extinguishers were passed from the pits... so there is probably more fire extinguishers there than if it had happened elsewhere.

I hope he has a miracle of a recovery.
 
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Mar 1, 2009
1,079
0
Liverpool
I would have expected the response time to be quicker than that.

However, on the flip-side, it just goes to show that improvements are being made.
If that incident happened in a car 10 years ago, id be certain the driver wouldn't survive.

The likes of crumple zones & other safety features - fire resistant suits.

Didn't F1 fuel years ago used to be invisible when burning?

Reminds me of the following video, really hits home;
http://www.zappinternet.com/video/bedThoLvuW/www.adnstream.tv
 

andycupra

status subject to change
Didn't F1 fuel years ago used to be invisible when burning?

Reminds me of the following video, really hits home;
http://www.zappinternet.com/video/bedThoLvuW/www.adnstream.tv

indy car fuel burnt invibibly as it wasnt petrol. (not sure they still dont use it now)
Methanol i believe.
They may have changed it or added something to give it a visible flame, but im not sure.

Also one irony about those filled in F1 was that one driver got killed by a fire extingisher. One car had stopped, two marshalls ran across the straight but the second marshall who was carrying a fire extingisher ran out in front of a car at top speed. He was killed outright and the extingisher he was carrying hit the driver in the face killing the driver.
Think it was tom price, south africa, 1977.
(3 mins 40 seconds on the video you linked to. - but dont look if you are squeemish. its not nice)
 
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Fl@pper

Back older greyer and less oilier but always hope
Jun 19, 2001
12,370
26
Gloucester
considering it was so close to the pits i was amazed all they had were handhelds

took the fire truck nearly 2 mins to arrive trundling like it was on a cruise and even then 30 sec to get water spraying out

mind you the fuel cell must have taken full wack to flame up like that on impact
 

Tam

Santa in disguise :)
Feb 10, 2005
1,777
0
Near Reevo :)
Looking at it and comparing it to a UK circuit the initial response would have been similar IMHO.

You don't have many accidents down the pit straight so you don't have many marshals, on the corners yes lots of marshals, straights not as many.

Only difference to UK circuit would have been the fact that there would be fire tender trucks ( a land-rover with a foam spray tank and plenty of additional fire extinguishers or similar) placed on each major corner (i.e. the corner he lost it on) which would have reacted and reached the car quite quickly therefore overall the fire would have probably been out sooner had it been at Silverstone or something, but initial response of a couple of marshals legging it down the track with a single extinguisher would have been similar.
 
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andycupra

status subject to change
anybody watching the indy cars on sky sports right now..!?!?

car on fire and that was pathetic by the marshalls, trying to yank her out of the car sideways. hose not turned on. marshall not appearing to know how to use the extingisher..
For some reason ther driver couldnt get out. seems like shes (yes she) is ok though. Could have been very nasty.
 
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