Bob Barnard Track Engineering

A year or so ago I posted a blog entitled "Enough is Enough." It was prompted by an expert witness case I had involving the death of a 9 year old girl. Since then I have just come back from a 7 hour deposition over the death of a 12 year old boy, and have another case involving a 6 year old boy. I have three new case enquiries this week alone. This is more than enough to make most people say something must be done, but who knows?

I used to think no one was keeping score here, unlike road accidents, on-track accidents did not seem to count. I had a personal feeling, based on no knowledge, that we were killing someone once a week in the US. An attorney recently directed me to the Charlotte Observer web site, who have been tracking some deaths for the last ten years. They say the average is 22 a year, or nearly one every other week, bad enough, but they do not include karts or other forms of racing, mainly oval track, so I think my number is probably pretty good. This does not include those maimed, injured for life, mainly just for watching. When is someone going to do something?

I get the argument most of the times that the track owners or operators are not-for-profit, or a club of volunteers. When did not being paid give you a license to do it wrong and kill and maim people, people you probably know, or their kids! You should have even more concern. Laguna Seca is a not-for-profit track, it does not stop it from being a world class facility, and there are many others. Not being paid, or being an "amateur" or volunteer, is no excuse for doing it wrong. If you do not want to do it properly then don't do it. Motor sport world wide runs on volunteers, it could not run otherwise. All those flags you see being waived at F1 and MotoGP's are volunteers, highly trained and skilled.

When I grew up the England cricket team consisted of "Gentlemen" and "Players." Gentlemen were just that, rich guys from Oxford and Cambridge who played for fun, and the players were often Yorkshire miners who were paid, and looked down upon because of it. The suggestion was the unpaid gentlemen were actually better at the game. So don't tell me someone died just because we are unpaid, not making money, or volunteers. If you do not know get some advice. But we don't know where? The attorneys suing you will know where. But that costs too much. Well what is a life worth? In any event, people like me can sort out very quickly what should be done at a ridiculously low fee for the responsibility involved, and most of the measures that need to be taken can be done by volunteers and amateurs. The last time I looked there were no professional tire wall builders.