04/24/24
October 24, 2011
SportsFilter: The Monday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Saw the video. There's not much margin for error in that sport.
posted by rcade at 10:45 AM on October 24, 2011
Horrific. Saw a video and wished I hadn't. Can't begin to imagine how it must feel for the guys who hit him. It was entirely unavoidable for both of them, but I'm sure that's little consolation when you've just fatally injured a friend. I've been astounded in the past by crashes (in bikes and cars) that people just walk away from (like McNish at Le Mons this year), so much so that there are very few I've ever seen and immediately thought "he's dead", but that was definitely one of them. I hope for Simoncelli's sake was as quick as it looked.
posted by JJ at 11:21 AM on October 24, 2011
I haven't seen the video, and have no intention of doing so, but the accounts that described his helmet coming off made it sound like it was a genuinely freak accident, although horribly similar to the one which killed Moto2 rider Shoya Tomizawa last year.
posted by etagloh at 06:36 PM on October 24, 2011
Colin Edwards says:
Following Valentino Rossi's Twitter post, Colin Edwards - the other rider involved, and injured, during Marco Simoncelli's fatal MotoGP accident at Sepang on Sunday - has used his Facebook page to pass on the following message:
"Thanks to everyone for ur support at this time :( Very sad to see a friend pass in any case. I'm holding up ok mentally, it was a very tragic accident :( Physically, besides a dislocated shoulder & ligaments involved, think both wrists & left heel have fractures too, getting X-rays on Wednesday. I feel sad for the whole MotoGP community right now, my heart is heavy for everyone affected, from family to fans. God speed my friend, u will be missed.
"CE"
posted by NoMich at 08:42 PM on October 24, 2011
I was trying to wrap my head around how this accident happened because the descriptions didn't make sense to me, so I watched the video. I mean, how do two riders run over a fellow rider?
It appears that Simoncelli had lost control of his bike and skidded sideways into the path of Edwards and Rossi, who were neck and neck at the time. Not only wouldn't they have had time to react, it looks like they were unaware that anything was awry until the accident was already occurring - as JJ already mentioned.
I'm not really sure if there's any way to avoid this sort of accident in MotoGP from time to time. It looked (to my admittedly untrained eye) like everyone involved was doing everything as safely and professionally as they could and this was just a horrible freak accident.
Just tragic.
posted by Joey Michaels at 09:21 PM on October 24, 2011
but the accounts that described his helmet coming off made it sound like it was a genuinely freak accident
The helmet comes off because the front wheel of one of the cycles hit him in the head.
He was probably dead from a broken neck before the medical team got anywhere close to him.
posted by grum@work at 09:49 PM on October 24, 2011
A rising star in the MotoGP circuit, Marco Simoncelli dies after crash in Sepang. There are many videos of the crash on Youtube, but I'm not going to link to any of them since it's rather stomach turning to watch. His helmet came off in a wreck then Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi ran over him. RIP Marco.