BAD Crash @ US60 tonight

richter69 wrote:the tracks down will not send a car down without the emt's in place and ready...... even the " outlaw" tracks.

That is a great thing! I hope you never need them,I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't rib you now and then.

I hate that you had to see this happen Dan,but I'm glad you were able to pull it together and help your friend. Jon hit the nail on the head when he said "you are a true HERO". That was a stand up thing to do. We'll continue to pray for your friend and hope he has a great recovery....---RED

56Tbird wrote:I just talked to Jeff again ,he said they won't know for a few days how his body will accept the reattached parts.But ,they are lucky he is still alive,and thanked me for helping him upright the car to keep him from bleeding out. We did all we could do ,for not being trained in this area,just glad it worked out as well as it did! I thought he was dead when I got to him ,then noticed the blood pumping and I figured his heart must have been beating. What a scary and sickening feeling....I'm still about to puke seeing it in my mind over and over! Right now, I'm not sure I want to go fast anymore. I'm sure I'll get over it in time, BUT that was a sight I'll never forget.I wear my safety gear at all times. I've tangled with a concrete wall , I'm not sure I'd have been so lucky had it been a guardrail! I don't recall seeing an EMT @ US43 ,and I know that no safety equipment was checked.Thank God we all made it home safe!!....P.S Snake get a window net and roll up your dang window!!

sorry about your bad day Dan.the older i get the more i think about it but still dont act on the idea like i should.i think it was Jon who pointed out the lack of a window net in my car when i posted a video so i got one,lol.my next project is a cage/chassis overhaul this winter and i may even get a new fire jacket. US43 always has EMT at the track too....

That's terrible to hear Dan. I sometimes think about how much we take for granted until something like this happens. Then we think about it for a few passes then go back to our normal routine. All my safety equipment and certs are up to date, but every once in a while when I pull into the burnout box I wonder if this is the time it bites back.

I always use everything except my window net,but I think I may use it EVERY pass now.And a big thing also is to make sure your 5 point harness is tight. That saved this guys life.His car went acroos the guardrail upside down ,if his head would have been out of the cage,he would've lost something alot more important than his hand!It does make me feel good that his son thanked me for helping his dad. I would hope they'd have done the same for me had it been the other way around..I know they would have.

Dan,

It sounds like you and his son Jeff more then likely saved his life,good thing you guys didn't panic.

Later Mark.

All too many times you hear about bad things that happen to people because others 'don't want to get involved' and do nothing but watch.
The world needs more people like you that do 'get involved'.

Maybe we did right ,maybe we did wrong,but we did something and my good friends Dad is alive.The doctors told Jeff we did right and he survived .I don't feel like a Hero, I just did what I could ,it wasn't fun, but it is rewarding to know he may be alive because of my actions.It just gets to me that out of probably 200 people ,only about 4 of us jumped in ,the rest just wanted to see the wreck or take pics or tell us what not to do...It would've been alot easier to stay at my trailer ,my fuel funnel was still sticking in my fuel cell where I just jumped on the golf cart and left it.I hope someone would do the same for me if I ever need them!

Dan, hope your friend makes a full recovery. When I was racing motocross back in 2002, I was on the ropes about quiting because my back was giving me alot of trouble. I was at local track and wittness a rider lose his life, I was first on scene, that has never left me. Any motor sport is high risk. I may be fooling my self, but I feel safer strapped in my car than I would on motorcycle in traffic? When I got my car going I bought a Hans device. I thougt my friends would pick on me about it, but 2 of them have bought one since I started wearing it.
Last friday I was headed to panama beach on I 10 for a family vacation, about 15 cars ahead of us a idiot headed the wrong way in the west bound lane killed a 25yr old boy and his 23yr old girl friend in a head on collision. When God punches your card it's over.

Your a good man my friend.I put my belt around the arm of a man when a motorcycle crash took his below the elbow.I will never forget the smell of all that blood and that was 30yrs ago.I think the biggest problem is we get use to the speed and take it for granted.You remember when over the winter you make your first pass and get that adrenaline rush again but then it goes back to normal for you.As we get older our prospective on life changes.Last nite we did something we never done before.After two unsuccessful passes where the car broke loose and rattled the tires and one squirrelly 5.28 pass we actually agreed to load the car and bow out instead of wreck the car or worse get someone hurt.

I think your correct Ray,age is taking over for youth and feeling invincible.I know it could be me at the speeds we are all going now.We just have to realize this and be as safe as possible,and NOT forget any safety devices we have.Safety needs to be priority one! Good luck to all od guys on this forum and everywhere. We all need to watch out for one another,and point out anything we thing may cost someone their life or a serious injury.If they don't like it or correct it,at least we know we tried!

56Tbird wrote:I think your correct Ray,age is taking over for youth and feeling invincible.I know it could be me at the speeds we are all going now.We just have to realize this and be as safe as possible,and NOT forget any safety devices we have.Safety needs to be priority one! Good luck to all od guys on this forum and everywhere. We all need to watch out for one another,and point out anything we thing may cost someone their life or a serious injury.If they don't like it or correct it,at least we know we tried!

x2 I have got to buy me a fire suit they have not said anything to me but 1 time and that night I had my buddy's jacket with me but we do get checked on belts being up to date and they look over your ride real good and do have emt's there before anyone can get on the track.I am getting one and I my self need to make sure I use all my safety stuff on every run as we are sopposed to not just because they say we have to.Safety should be our 1st concern it is left up to us as how safe we race like has been said we never go on track exspecting to hit the wall and wrecking our rides but sometime it happens and we need to have our satety stuff up to par.

I wished we had more guys out there like you , a very stand up thing to do and in the moment you might not relize the impact you may have had on his family for the help you gave thats somthing im sure they will never forget.

Saftey equpment is somthing that cant be skimped doesnt matter if its circle track or drag racing , you only can skimp once and may not have a chance to do it over , 13 sec car at test and tune to a 7 second monster dont matter , we have to try our best

NHRA Pro stock in Denver yesterday a guy think was pittman ? rolled and stuffed the wall hard twice walked away

Thumbs up for your courage and we need more guys like you out there !!!

Race Ready Fabrications wrote:
Bottom line is we're all responsible for our own safety!! My stuffs up to standards. I hope some others take a look at a situation like this and take a good hard look at their own safety program.

This is exactly how I think about it. Take personal responsibility for your actions. And your safety!
Oh yeah, Nice work Dan! Further proof that you are good people...

I heard that he had his arm restraints on. I'm not sure ,his son unhooked him ,but things were happening real fast and I didn't see whether they were on or not. Either way ,it's over ,it was just a horrific crash.

56Tbird wrote:I just talked to Jeff again ,he said they won't know for a few days how his body will accept the reattached parts.But ,they are lucky he is still alive,and thanked me for helping him upright the car to keep him from bleeding out. We did all we could do ,for not being trained in this area,just glad it worked out as well as it did! I thought he was dead when I got to him ,then noticed the blood pumping and I figured his heart must have been beating. What a scary and sickening feeling....I'm still about to puke seeing it in my mind over and over! Right now, I'm not sure I want to go fast anymore. I'm sure I'll get over it in time, BUT that was a sight I'll never forget.I wear my safety gear at all times. I've tangled with a concrete wall , I'm not sure I'd have been so lucky had it been a guardrail! I don't recall seeing an EMT @ US43 ,and I know that no safety equipment was checked.Thank God we all made it home safe!!....P.S Snake get a window net and roll up your dang window!!

Don and I were discussing that Saturday, I need to get all the holes stopped up so all the smoke stays out of the car.

I also made a pass at US 43 I should have aborted, (dumb) 1000+ hp and a 200 shot of nos, 103 air temp and 150 degree track temp don't mix very well. We all don't think it could, or will happen to us.

I had my hands full from the start to the 660, and it was the worst at the 660.

You did a commendable job Dan, but I for one know that you would do it again in a heart beat. I'm proud of you, to many people now days stand back with their thumb up their butt and watch someone else do it or in worst case no one does.

I want to thank GOD and all those who helped us at the track, and to the Morris family who took care of my daughter,Tabitha. I also want to thank GOD for the heroes who helped with Dad at the car: Gene, Dan, and Laroy. These guys are HEROES and MEN of great heart. Without their help things would have been worse. I know more people were involed in helping but things were a blur for me.

I would also like to comment to the few imbecilic people, who think we would send a car down the track that was not equiped with all the correct safety gear and that the gear not ready to be used. The cars safety equiptment and firesuit was inspected yesterday by a second party. (I didn't get to see it till today) and it was found to be ALL in working order and correct. By the way....I AM THE GUY WHO UNHOOKED THE SAFETY ARM RESTRAINTS AND HEAD RESTRAINT, while Gene and Dan held his arms.

As far as the chute goes, the safey pin is still in the trailer and chute is ready to be pulled. The entire crash and physical damage has been gone over with the surgeon we have,(and he just happens to be a racing fan and has treated several drivers). We now know what happened and how. But to those few inconsequential people out there, I would like to ask you to keep your puerile comments and opinions to yourself, and we greatly look forward to seeing you on the starting line.

Once again I want to thank everyone that helped, called or texted and have stopped by the hospital. It is great to know that so many people care enough to check on us. We have a long road to travel, but we will get down it fast!! And be back for the next round.

above post sums its up , anything can happen anytime and this has nothing to do with saftey ect .... im sure the track , and his crew had all the saftey they needed ....... i mean to run that fast its a given and i dont think anyone should question that .

Its great to see people come together and help out in those situations and be able to recover from the wreck . I dont think anyone can prepare for that situation

best of luck to your family and a healthy recovery

56Tbird wrote:

richter69 wrote:and Dan, you are a true Hero.....

I'm not sure about that Jon, but I've been there twice at this track.I guess I'm just lucky to keep my shit together and help my fellow racers. If I was younger ,I think I'd get into being a 1st responder or EMT.I don't seem to panic in these situations,but I'm truly shaken up after this deal.The last time was a blown dragster with a hung throttle at over 200MPH. He went through the traps at 168MPH and by me at the end of the track so fast I couldn't hardly see him about 30 feet from me. I was stopped at the top end picking my chute up when went by.I was the 1st one to him too. I'm buying lifeflight insurance this week ,I got a thing in the mail this week. It cost $50 for 1 year and $135 for 3 years ,and I know if I ever crash there ,I'll be leaving on a helicopter! Hopefully if I get the insurance I'll never use it and it'll just be wasted money!

Dan you are already a first responder.You should look into some training emt,vol. fire or rescue squads.Many time it is the first few min./seconds that make the difference.The training is not that difficult.You probaly already know most of it,but it will help you put it togather in the most effective way.

Not to be ignorant, but can you explain what happened, maybe it will help someone or one of us to avoid the same situation and unfortunate outcome. what went wrong? part failure? Traction? Prep? How could have it been prevented?

Dave ,I have no idea what happened. I was pitted right past the finish line with my motorhome and trailer against the guardrail with my car parked on the side of the return road.All i heard was the sweet sound of a blower engine at wide open throttle go past my trailer and then some squalling tires and a crash ,I looked up and saw parts flying through the air,me and Laray jumped on my golf cart and went to the driver.Somebody told me the car made a sudden turn as soon as he lifted the throttle. Sounds like more than likely something broke.I have no idea,but Jim was a veteran driver,so I'd be safe in saying it wasn't anything he did wrong.

I got a call from Jeff Ray today ,thanking me for all I did to help his dad last friday night. Telling me that the doctors said we saved his dad's life with our fast actions.Jim is still in an induced coma,they're going to try to bring him out of it tomorrow.He lost his right hand,but the doctor said the way it was cut off makes him a great candidate for a transplant.And he should make a full recovery and be able to drive a racecar again in time if he chooses! He also told me that he has no head injuries and everything else should heal fine.He's got both arms and collarbones broken and bruised both lungs. The doctor is a race car guy and said that the arm restrainsts broke his arms from the violent hit with the guardrail and the collarbones were broken by the belts.What a lucky man to have survived this crash.Jeff said he was glad the crash happened on this pass because he had the blower turned down as low as it would go. He told his dad it should run a 4.91, it went 4.94. He said the next pass after he turned it up would've been a 4.30.I feel better about helping Jim survive this crash than any feeling I've ever had winning a race.I don't ever want to see anything like it again ,but if I ever do I'll be right there to try to help the driver again(no matter who it is)Thanks for all your prayers for Jim Ray!!!

[quote="56Tbird"]I got a call from Jeff Ray today ,thanking me for all I did to help his dad last friday night. Telling me that the doctors said we saved his dad's life with our fast actions.Jim is still in an induced coma,they're going to try to bring him out of it tomorrow.He lost his right hand,but the doctor said the way it was cut off makes him a great candidate for a transplant.And he should make a full recovery and be able to drive a racecar again in time if he chooses! He also told me that he has no head injuries and everything else should heal fine.He's got both arms and collarbones broken and bruised both lungs. The doctor is a race car guy and said that the arm restrainsts broke his arms from the violent hit with the guardrail and the collarbones were broken by the belts.What a lucky man to have survived this crash.Jeff said he was glad the crash happened on this pass because he had the blower turned down as low as it would go. He told his dad it should run a 4.91, it went 4.94. He said the next pass after he turned it up would've been a 4.30.I feel better about helping Jim survive this crash than any feeling I've ever had winning a race.I don't ever want to see anything like it again ,but if I ever do I'll be right there to try to help the driver again(no matter who it is)Thanks for all your prayers for Jim Ray!!! [/quot

From a to a hErO in nothing flat, good job Dan.

YOU DA MAN, DAN

Those GOD DAMN STEEL GUARDRAILS should all be history. But that will probably never happen.
When I was five, I saw a C/altered get hung up on the rail. The car was chewed up to nothing. The driver died a year later, and had a wife and 3 kids.
I can remember it like yesterday. Id rather hit cement than the steel anyday.

Anybody remember Bob Gliddens encounter at Atlanta??

Glad to see concerened people like you were there Dan.
Regards.
Al