Murder, manslaughter or stupidity? What killed Sprint Car racer?

Who or what killed Kevin Ward?

  • He was murdered

    Votes: 1 2.4%
  • He was manslaughtered

    Votes: 2 4.9%
  • He was stupid

    Votes: 37 90.2%
  • Motor racing is dangerous, sh1t happens.

    Votes: 7 17.1%

  • Total voters
    41
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neilrr

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Murder, manslaughter, stupidity, racing incident? What killed Sprint Car racer?

Everyone has probably seen the video.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=K...ard+Jr&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=vid .

Just wondered what the panel's view is.

Harsh as it may seem I'm going with stupidity.

As I see it the dead guy made two mistakes:

1) He should have backed off when it became clear he couldn't make the overtake on the outside, was running out of road & had nowhere to go.

2) Strutting around in a red mist of anger on a dark dirt track in a black racing suit while cars without headlights are whizzing past, even under yellow, is pushing your luck & looking for recognition by the Darwin Awards nominating committee.
 
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I can't decide between 'stupid' and 'motor racing is dangerous, sh1t happens'.
 
In my opinion , the guy who got out the car and started wondering over the track was crazy to be doing this , the driver who ran him over / hit him , probably never even seen him , probably focused on not hitting the vehicle and making the bend and didn't even know till it was to late he was there :( ...
Tragic accident and the driver shouldn't be charged with anything , he will suffer enough in his life knowing he caused the death of a rival , may of even been a friend ,,,
 
His attempted overtake (doomed to failure) caused the accident. Wandering about a race track at night, during a race in a black suit and helmet was always going to end badly. Tragic for all but the conspiracy theorists.

The Police and Prosecutors say NO charges will be brought and they are viewing it as an accident.
 
I can't decide between 'stupid' and 'motor racing is dangerous, sh1t happens'.


I've set it up so you can vote for more than one choice.

I know what you mean but decided to go with only 'stupid'. The whole thing was entirely avoidable TWICE.
 
They were bitter rivals apparently hence the walking in the path and the gesticulating just before he was hit.......dumb rage it appears.
I doubt the other driver even saw him until a few yards away.
 
One could easily classify this as " Racing for rednecks"
History

http://www.woosprint.com/images/stories/MainImages/PDF/2014_WoO_Sprint_Rulebook.pdf

One of the problems being these cars have no starter and in the event of a stall have to be push started by a support vehicle under a caution flag--- despite some fairly elaborate racing rules the fact the guy couldn't restart and rejoin the race himself and let off some of that steam by racing might just have contributed to his demise?:dk:
 
First rule surely should be

'Don't git kilt.'

Looks like the OSR tyre & rim was destroyed. Even if the car was running he wasn't going anywhere.
 
I think Tony Stewart tried to scare him a little and got too close, experienced driver teaching the new boy a lesson in manners.....little more to it but to run out in the middle of a dark track kicking off was the worst thing as proven with losing his life
 
Absolute stupidity. This racing is similar to our stock car racing. The rules are simple unless the car is on fire you stay in the car seatbelt on as this minimises the risk of injury to yourself. To get out of the car on a live race track under yellows is fatal as it turned out to be. Remonstrating with a competitor while you are on foot and he is still in his car is gross stupidity. This is not the first time its happened and I'm sure it won't be the last.
 
in the heat of the moment he thought he would be a big tough guy...end of story "STUPID"
 
Following the accident Stewart seemed to be running higher on the track than the other cars under the yellow. Witnesses also say the engine revs increased suggesting he nailed the throttle to force the back end to step out.

But Ward should never have put himself in that position.

Sad.
 
This slow mo footage appears to show the guy who ended up dead attempt to jump on the car that killed him, or at least to grab the wing.

You can quite clearly see the car react at the same time, whether to his weigh unbalancing the car or the driver's reaction to what's going on I don't know.

It's best viewed on YouTube on the largest size you can get. It's all over by 20 seconds.


[YOUTUBE]watch?v=1XvhrPu64Co[/YOUTUBE]
 
I'm not sure that those cars are particularly under control on a corner, and I am not sure how steerable they are and how much they need throttle. Once the guy on foot put himself on the outside of the car, could the other driver do much to avoid him? Was the blip a warning shot more than a threat? I'm guessing that if he'd braked he would have hit them anyway.
 
It's as stupid as standing in the outside lane of a motorway. In a car versus pedestrian accident, the pedestrian is never going to win.
 
I'm not sure that those cars are particularly under control on a corner, and I am not sure how steerable they are and how much they need throttle. Once the guy on foot put himself on the outside of the car, could the other driver do much to avoid him? Was the blip a warning shot more than a threat? I'm guessing that if he'd braked he would have hit them anyway.

Having driven that type of car the car is most controllable in a corner by the throttle as that positions the back end and hence the exit point. Brakes have very little effect as does steering. Trying to miss another car on an oval track is so difficult trying to miss a person would be impossible.

Not sure on the BHP of these cars but over here an F1 stock car big block chevvy would run 750bhp -800bhp with a weight of 1500Kg thats a lot of horsepower under your right foot in a fairly uncontrollable monster
 

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