8 Y.O. girl dies in drag related accident

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How tragic ... and bizarre?

I would think that the safety equipment would be sufficent.

What kind of speed does a 210cc dragster get up to?
 
Originally Posted By: NormanBuntz
Since when is drag racing a recommended activity for an eight year old child? I believe those parents endangered their daughter in an unjustified manner.


Tons of kids do drag racing that young. Same with kids in karts, midget sprint cars, and bandalero cars.

Very tragic for sure. Hopefully they can either find improvements to the car or the facility to prevent future injuries or deaths.
 
Originally Posted By: Linctex
What kind of speed does a 210cc dragster get up to?


Article says "In that class, they can reach speeds of 96 kilometres per hour during a race."

I would have thought safety equipment would prevent something like this at those relatively low speeds, but details are missing on exactly how she hit the wall.
 
My first reaction was pure outrage...then I thought about my daughter starting to learn to ski when she was 3.
By the time she was 8, she was definitely skiing at speeds that could have resulted in death if she had caught an edge at just the wrong time and hit a tree. I probably read about 1-2 junior ski racers a year who die in the White or Green Mountains...almost always when they are freeskiing, places without a safety net like a race course will have. These events always make me sad, but I tell myself that they were doing something they really loved and pushed it a bit too much or some little thing like a binding failed them...never made me think that my daughter or I should quit skiing.

Not such a simple issue as I thought about it more, I'm sure they work hard to make the junior drag racing safe and I'd guess that the kids just love it...almost anything that is truly fun has some level of danger to it.
 
I would rather have a son or daughter involved in this versus getting involved in gangs, drugs, and general vandalism/hoodlum activities. RIP to that young girl.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Hopefully they can either find improvements to the car or the facility to prevent future injuries or deaths.


Something doesn't sound right at all.

I have drag raced at multiple strips over the years.....

I have NEVER seen "a concrete barrier at the end of the run."

Seriously, [censored]?!???

Originally Posted By: billt460

No sand trap or catch netting?


No kidding... something very wrong at this track!
 
Exactly my thoughts Virtus, though I couldn't put them down in a way that I felt was good enough.
I don't have kids, however I have been thinking about them a lot and this sort of thing wouldn't keep me from letting them participate in hobbies like this if that was something that truly interested them.
Its horrible when something happens, but you can't have growth without risk. The best thing is when something happens try to learn from it and figure out how we might be able to mitigate this particular circumstance, so that the loss wasnt wasted.
 
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Where is this "concrete barrier" she hit at the end of the track? If her car reached 96 KPH, (59 MPH), it looks as if it could roll to a stop on that track before hitting anything.
 
Originally Posted By: PimTac
I would rather have a son or daughter involved in this versus getting involved in gangs, drugs, and general vandalism/hoodlum activities. RIP to that young girl.


Forget to express my sentiments, so sad that this little girl lost her life.
My parents lost my older sister when she was 6 and I think they mourned for her every day for the rest of their lives.
 
I am so sorry for the family.

My 8 year old son races karts, he started when he was 5. These stories shake me to the core.

In my case, I make sure the vehicle is as safe as possible and make sure the track is as safe as possible. Of course anything can happen on a race track and my son could be hurt, killed, paralyzed, etc. I make sure my boy WANTS to race and he's not just out there because he feels pressured by me to race. Kids can get hurt/killed riding bikes, climbing trees, skiing, sledding, playing sports but you still have to let them live their lives.

Terrible news.
 
Originally Posted By: NormanBuntz
Since when is drag racing a recommended activity for an eight year old child?

We have junior drags here, but I don't think we have any that young. Of course, this isn't a hot bed for driver development or anything, either. Fernando Alonso got his first racing license when he was something like 6.
 
Many career drivers start this young.

What happened is a true tragedy.

The perspective on child endangerment is culturally skewed. Growing up, I knew a lot of farm kids who performed duties more dangerous than junior drag racing because that's what you did to make sure there was food on the table.

Drag racing is hardly as "necessary", but for some, this is just a way of life.

None of this will ever justify or ease the pain of a child's death. I'm just offering a different perspective.
 
If you're going to excel at something, the younger you start the better. Look at Formula 1 Champions. Schumacher, Vettel, and Hamilton all started in karting when they were little kids, barely tall enough to turn the pedals of a bicycle. Look at Olympic Gymnasts. Nadia Comaneci was 14 years old back in 1976 when she won a Gold Medal, and scored the first, "perfect 10" in the sport.

All of these kids took chances doing what they did, and any of them could have been seriously hurt or killed doing it. The younger you are, the less skill you have developed. And the greater chance there is for a serious mishap. It's no different than succeeding finically. Risk determines reward. The greater the risk over the longest period of time, the greater the reward is down the road. But at any time the whole thing can go against you. Just as it did for this girl. Skill accounts for a great deal. But in a sport like auto racing, luck plays a huge part. And usually if you are unlucky you can get real dead, real fast. Back to Formula 1. Gilles Villeneuve and Ayrton Senna were both highly skilled World Driving Champions. Both had their luck run out. Both are dead because of it.
 
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Virtus_Probi...

That's exactly where I was/am


My kid be it a boy or a girl wouldn't be doing that at that age either.
 
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