Carrera GT crash at California speedway: Verdict, Best to check out the facility Options

[drgchapman]

This is an article regarding the Carrera GT crash that killed the two guys in the car.
Big award......releases are suspect. Track had some fault due to barrier placement, driver had fault, everyone had some fault as in most things in life.

Be carefull out there (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

http://www.sportscarmarket.com/content/carrera

[jhadler]

I think everyone here is pretty much in agreement.

To Tim, the issue at hand is how the event official(s) are protected by the insurance carrier of the event. If the event officials were acting in accordance and in good faith with the rules established by the sanctioning body and insurance carrier, the insurance company can and should protect them from litigation. However, it seems that the the event officials were acting outside the scope of the rules, and there is where one can easily establish "gross negligence".

Tech said "no go". And the event chair(s) seemingly overrode the decision of tech. It doesn't matter -why- tech said no, so long as it wasn't a personally biased decision (I don't like you, so I'm gonna fail your car), then tech has done their job to the best of their ability. For the event official to override tech, they circumvented their own rules, and a horrible tragedy resulted (be it directly or indirectly). This is where a jury can easily be convinced of "gross negligence".

So my point again is this, to all event officials and organizers. Do what your rules say you do. Don't circumvent those rules without DAMN good reason. And know that circumventing those rules can expose both the club and yourself to legal action should something bad happen.

As for the track getting sued? Well yeah, they should have moved that wall back into place before allowing another club to use the site.

As for Porsche? Puhlease. If Porsche is really culpable in the deaths of those people, than Kawasaki and Suzuki are gonna get sued out of business. A little responsibility here people! If you buy a car that has the performance envelope of a CGT, and drive it like it's a Civic. You're gonna get fuched up.

And the driver? Come on... He shouldn't have even been on the track at that point, the event officials should have pulled him off the track. I know I would have.

-Josh2