Instructor, Student Killed In Fiery Lamborghini Track Experience Crash In Las Vegas

''Miraculously, the man survived the fall after the powdery snow cushions his fall. He was even able to walk again after three months after fracturing his vertebrae, pelvis and legs.''

THANK GOD

 

The track and business is reopening next week. It was a voluntary shut down and they have decided next week it should reopen.

But my guess is it's going to hurt business quite a bit.

 

I'm not a lawyer, but it is my understanding you cannot waive away any right to sue for gross negligence. Simple negligence means you made a mistake. Gross negligence means you were aware of a problem, or should have been aware of a problem, and did nothing about it.

Plus, when you have damage, juries will find fault.

 

True. But if you're driving the car and it crashes it's your fault. The only excuse would be a mechanical failure, improper preparation, or design flaw.

I think the investigative focus now is on the car and how it was prepped.

Life is not without its risks. Sometimes "Stuff happens" in the decisions we make. You can't sue everything just because it doesn't go your way.

 

All true....

But best I can tell, anyone can file suit against anyone else, for almost any reason....now, whether the court throws it out or it goes forward and creates a huge judgment, that's based on our court and justice system which is now conditioned to "someone is always to blame but the person responsible".

Accidents happen, cars crash, people get hurt and, yes, sometimes the car burns up. Happened locally here to a wonderful guy a few years back in his 458 Spider. I'm unsure it was Ferrari, or Pirelli's, fault that the car was going too fast, into a strange turn, with low grip, and that the car then went off into the woods and hit a tree right at the fuel tank...... I'm pretty sure the car was compliant with DoT and NHTSA safety and design elements...

this was a tragedy, but it does happen every day - just not a Lambo at a race track.

 

I'm with you on that. I'd love for people to be more accountable for their own actions. But that's not the way of the world anymore. My guess is there will be big settlements to avoid going in front of a jury.

 

A race track is not a public roadway. Many states have laws protecting track operators, or they would all have been sued out of business from the very first accident.

And I'm not so sure this will hurt business. I remember my first day of racing school, there was a crumpled up Lola, a student had crashed in the previous class. The driver ended up in the hospital. This did not deter anyone in my class from continuing on with the training. Nobody thinks it's going to happen to them.

 

Me too! My 1st day a ford gt bit the dust. Nobody dropped out.

 

I have raced for 17+ years, from club stuff to pro level, and must have signed 200,000 waivers in my lifetime. Have been around some profoundly sad events while chasing my passion.

While I agree - there are all sorts of laws, waivers, you name it - about 2 years ago I was there when a small mechanical issue combined with a horrible piece of driving judgement by a pretty experienced driver ended up in $500K in physical damages and some bad injuries.

Amazingly, in spite of all those laws and waivers, a few lawsuits were filed. Didn't make the press so guess it doesn't exist. The first round of depositions were fun as most of the "witnesses" (who had been there, seen the car, reviewed the data and video) all said "you step into a race car, just be glad you get to step out of it".

 

Problem is this case is a PI lawyer's wet dream. Newly wedded wife watched husband being burned to a crisp? It will never make it to a jury.


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I doubt it. Unless there's some evidence of negligence that hasn't been made public. More likely it was just driver error.

You need something like the cell phone video evidence in the Tony Stewart case. That was pretty damning, IMO. I believe that wrongful death suit is still in court.

 

All the waivers, in legal terms, not only say that you won't sue... But that you will pay all the legal fees for their defense...

hold harmless and indemnify... Is the language I believe...

So, if you sue a track, and lose, do they really collect on their legal fees? Would suk to lose after a loved one died, and get hit by a $200k bill...

Anyone ever seen that enforced?

 

Waivers are unenforceable. See the results of carrera gt crash at fontana with the ferrari

 

Exactly what I was thinking about


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I believe the case settled, except for Porsche. Maybe somebody else can refresh my memory. The claim against Porsche was the GT was an unsafe car. I recall Porsche having something like a 5% contributory negligence, but I don't recall the case going to trial. Oh, I just remembered something, one of the plaintiffs was a life insurance company that had written a 30 million dollar policy on one of the people killed. But memory is fuzzy.



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I was always curious what the pca liability insurance covered...

In theory, it does cover drivers for liability if another driver sues them... Say so right in the policy...

So, did the policy cover the driver that got sued? Anyone know?

Also, waivers do work... Sometimes...

There's a guy on Rennlist that was in a huge crash, ended up in a wheelchair. Track was found to be grossly negligent, yet his case was dismissed based on his waiver... Track even admitted error. I believe there was a big accident on the track, and green flags were still up, not red. Folks plowed into standing cars...


If the waivers had no validity, no one in their right mind would go on a track... Unlimited liability in a hpde where the other guy is cruising in his Enzo?

 

It depends on what exactly the state law says, and the facts and circumstances in each case.

I believe Tony Stewart's insurance company refused to defend him. Not sure the exact reason they gave.

Also in the Paul Walker case, Porsche is being accused of building an unsafe vehicle.

In that regard, I think Porsche built a vehicle with more performance than their lack of driving ability, too smart to learn, no self-control, spoiled brat, rich kid customers can handle.

 

Yep. Too often money exceeds driving talent.

 

Again, the lawyers here can explain better than I; basically, you cannot waive your rights to sue for egregiousness behavior. Say, for example, you hire me to be your financial adviser (you fool), and my contract clearly states you cannot sue me for fraud. I even make you initial and sign that provision. The wavier will not hold water. If I rip you off, you can still sue me.

Please understand, I'm not saying I agree with this legal standard, but it is how things work.

PS, there's a reason PCA and others are nonprofit organizations.

 

Looks like there were many causes. The car appears to have been a salvaged car, it was a convertible, it had an aftermarket CF rear wing that may have failed, and there was not enough run off area where he lost control.

The recall issue was not the reason the car caught fire.

There is no regulatory agency for these tracks in Nevada. Build what you want, take your risks. Obviously the two other companies doing this rag on the third guy where the accident took place but IMO, Speedway LV does not have the run off area the other 2 tracks do. What surprises me is no tire wall on the wall.

The driver died immediately, the instructor unfortunately burned to death.

Multiple factors contributed to fatal SpeedVegas crash, experts say | Las Vegas Review-Journal

 

Here's the aerial map provided by the Las Vega Review Journal article (thanks to TheMayor).

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I added the blue arrow and "cement barrier" label because I think it was unfortunately omitted.

Based on the trajectory of the car shown with the red line, it looks like the driver was going too fast and never adopted the proper line for taking the corner. The proper racing line shown in yellow would have required the driver to brake hard before turning in.

The news story seems to indicate the accident occurred after the driver had lapped the course more than once...

"...On one of the laps, the car, after traveling at more than 100 mph on the track’s longest straightaway paralleling Interstate 15, failed to negotiate an S curve, spun out of control and slammed into a barrier, where the car burst into flames, killing both occupants. ..."​

The news story also said the driver had been given a "safety briefing" before driving the course. However, I wonder if the driver was properly instructed on how to drive the course, especially on how to AND how not-to take that corner. They should have:

- given class room instruction on what line to take for the corner
- told the driver what line he CANNOT use for taking the corner
- shown the driver how to use the braking zone on the course
- told what speed he MUST enter the corner at​

The instructor should have applied the brakes as soon as the driver went off the prescribed line but perhaps it was already too late. This brings me to comment on the way the course was designed.

The adjacent road, Las Vegas Boulevard, is barely 100 feet from the cement barriers at the crash site (see photo) and even closer at the billboards. You can tell by the size of the 20-foot pickup trucks in the Google photo. If there was a tire barrier it couldn't have been more than 1 tire thick in the Google photo but maybe they fixed that after the Google photo was taken.

The design is all wrong. The cement barrier is more effective for preventing the cars from injuring the Public should the cars exit the course and get on to Las Vegas Boulevard. It's not going to protect the drivers if they hit it. However, drivers would have signed waivers while the Public can easily sue everyone involved at SpeedVegas. I think this issue warrants serious scrutiny.

Looking at the layout of the course, it is pretty obvious the whole selling point of this track was the high-speed straightaway and the S-curve where the accident took place. I think it's crazy because potentially inexperienced drivers would be tempted to set some sort of speed record before entering the S-curve. Had they rotated the course 180°, the cars would at least turn away from Las Vegas Boulevard and they could have created a much deeper run-off area. It looks badly thought-out.

IMO, there are a lot of seriously wrong things with this place.
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Another instructor at SpeedVegas is suing to close the track until it's redesigned.

SpeedVegas driving instructor sues to close Las Vegas track | Las Vegas Review-Journal

 

I wonder what happened to the in car video..if that went up in smoke or not I didn't see anything mentioned in the articles..

 

No ****. He must have been really hauling ass or didn't brake at all. The track design sucks too.