11/05/24
February 23, 2013
28 Fans Injured at Daytona by Crash Debris: A violent 12-car crash at the end of the Nationwide NASCAR race Saturday sent a tire and other debris flying over the grandstand fence at Daytona International Speedway, injuring at least 28 fans, some critically. Deadspin has video of a fan who was filming a few seats from where the tire landed. More from Reuters.
posted by tommytrump to auto racing at 07:43 PM - 7 comments
From pictures and video, it looks like the car managed to hit (and break open) a gate in the fence.
posted by drezdn at 08:21 PM on February 23, 2013
YouTube has reinstated those videos and in essence told NASCAR to go pound salt.
ESPN did absolutely nothing to cover the chaos in the stands, and even lead SportsCenter with Danica Patrick as opposed to the crash.
Someone is terribly afraid of offending the head shitkickers.
posted by wfrazerjr at 04:45 PM on February 24, 2013
I don't think ESPN is afraid of offending the sports leagues it broadcasts. I think it has completely internalized the PR concerns of those leagues, so a threat to the league is a threat to ESPN.
posted by rcade at 05:27 PM on February 24, 2013
Yeah, I was just gonna say what rcade said. It's not fear, it's just an alignment of priorities -- just like how the guy who reports sports on your local news is unabashedly a fan of the local teams, except that in ESPN's case, the local teams are the sports themselves (and, to a lesser extent, the leagues).
posted by Etrigan at 05:32 PM on February 24, 2013
But only the ones they have the broadcast rights for.
Because no other sports or leagues exist.
posted by owlhouse at 08:13 PM on February 24, 2013
Saw the accident. Very nasty. Though from reading reports from racing journalists it appears it's been rather overplayed. Like the mainstream media that I saw reported the engine flew into the crowd when it actually didn't, it landed in front, and mostly it was small debris caused the injuries, and it was just bloody bad luck as the car happened to hit a gate in the fence, not the fence itself. Way I've seen it reported you'd imagine it was akin to the 1955 Le Mans disaster.
No idea if NASCAR tickets say it but I know the old caveat "Motor racing is dangerous" warning to spectators used to be on racing tickets.
Hopefully all will recover, though really there's not much you can do about these horrible fluke accidents. Like Dan Wheldon's death. Just sheer shitty bad luck that he just happened to hit his head on the fence post.
posted by Drood at 02:31 PM on February 25, 2013
NASCAR is busily pulling fan videos of the crash that were uploaded to YouTube; they have a copyright claim on fan footage as part of the conditions of entry, but it comes across as knee-jerk suppression of a news event, not a sporting event. ESPN apparently didn't do any of its own reporting at the end of the race, and instead interviewed drivers about the race while "waiting for word from NASCAR."