Thread: Tragedy in Tennessee

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19267840/

SELMER, Tenn. - One day after a drag-racing car careened into a crowd and killed six people, witnesses questioned why the driver was allowed to speed down a multilane highway with no guard rails, lined on both sides by hundreds of spectators.

Exactly . . .

I feel as sorry for Troy Critchley. He will have to find a way to live with this decision, and the failure to control the car. That will be a heavy burden. :-(

Another quote from the article:

Matt Griffin, who was at the car show, has been drag racing for five years and agreed that running a dragster on a city street was a “pretty stupid thing to do.”

Hard to call it an "accident" when somebody gets this stupid. Drag racing and Hot Rodding in general sure as heck doesn't need this kind of publicity!!!! What a terrible tragedy, our prayers go out to the friends and family of those killed or injured.

Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

I feel as sorry for Troy Critchley. He will have to find a way to live with this decision, and the failure to control the car. That will be a heavy burden. :-(

In today's society, he will also be sued. Whether or not he wins the suit (not likely) it will cost him tens of thousands of $$ in legal fees.

So sad.

Why the he!! did he stay on it so long? If the throttle stuck, he should have hit the kill switch. Looks like driver stupidty to me. Hard to believe a 20 year vet would be ' showing off ' like that.
Sincere prayers to all, including the driver.

Jack

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

In today's society, he will also be sued. Whether or not he wins the suit (not likely) it will cost him tens of thousands of $$ in legal fees.

Yep, everybody will be gettin' papers on this one......

I watched the TV news footage of this accident today. What a stupid, stupid decision on everybody's part to allow this to even be considered. To see that funny car blasting full bore between rows of onlookers was something I can't believe.

Also, every headline is reading "drag racing accident, " when it was not actually a drag race at all, just one car doing an exibition run. It is sure to have far reaching reprocussions for the sport and the image the NHRA and street rodders have worked so hard to build.

Heads will roll on this one, and lawsuits are an absolute certainty. So sorry for the victims and their families. This should never have been allowed to happen.

Don

What is so sad is that this stupidity was trying to support a charity. Good intentions gone bad as a result of really, really bad judgement.

According to what I've seen on TV, the charity has done this before, but with slower cars.

They may not be able to sue the municipality or police, even though it was done on a public street, and I would think the police would have blocked off the street.

They also probably will not sue the organizers because the charity organization won't have a lot of assets.

That leaves the race team, but if it's incorporated, the assets won't mean much divided between 24 victims.

Any lawyer worth his salt will sue EVERYBODY.

Interesting (but not surprising) article.
http://www.dragracingonline.com/burksblast/ix_6-2.html

Too bad that article won't get any national attention Pro... Unfortunately the media doesn't want the facts, only the blood...

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Too bad that article won't get any national attention Pro... Unfortunately the media doesn't want the facts, only the blood...

Big fat "DITTO"I think 90% of what we hear on the news is for hipe, not facts. This is good example.

Jack

".....Also, every headline is reading "drag racing accident, " when it was not actually a drag race at all, just one car doing an exibition run. It is sure to have far reaching reprocussions for the sport and the image the NHRA and street rodders have worked so hard to build......."

Don I think you bring up a very valid point, and couple this a national media that in many cases that will often over blow a tragedy you can often see a knee-jerk reaction by government be it local, state or federal.

I'm not trying to say that people don't do stupid things (One gal was recently sentenced in Tucson for killing to other in a street racing accident and a Fort Huachuca soldier (and girl friend?) were also recently killed up there. I'm not trying to minimize the fact that all were truly tragic events caused by incredibly stupid decisions, but it paints ANYBODY with a modified car with a very broad brush. Some of the movies such as "The Fast and the Furious" don't really help our image with the general public either. It took hot rodding a long time to legitimize itself, and it's still something that can be quickly undone.