NASCAR & Motor-sports Industry Renew Historical Debate About Fan Safety & Catch-fence Systems

Race car wheel assemblies keep flying over catch fences. For the motor-sports industry, that is neither new nor a freak accident. And with the recent incident at the Daytona 500 last Saturday, with yet another wheel assembly flying over the catch fence system, NASCAR and the motor-sports industry are renewing their historical debate about fan safety and catch-fence systems. It should be noted that despite this unedited footage from ABS News, Daytona President Joie Chitwood, III, said Sunday that he did not know if the wheel went over the fence, or through it. Jim Utter et al, Charlotte Observer, dated February 25, 2013. Respectfully, the ABC footage linked herein dispels NASCAR's/Daytona's attempt to shape the public message. According to H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, former president of Charlotte Motor Speedway, "'The worst thing that anyone can think about is a wheel going over the fence.'" Utter, supra. The motor-sports industry has been debating with themselves for years about fan safety versus revenues. According to Samuel Gualardo, past president of the American Society of Safety Engineers and referring to simply moving fans away from the track, "'Obviously it will be a revenue decision by track owners because you'll be eliminating that set of rows [and] [t]hat's probably why they haven't done it.'" Utter, supra. According to Izod IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, "It's an industry-wide problem, and one we can fix quickly.'" And further, Reay said "'We've been talking about it for a long time....'" Olson et al, USA Today, February 24, 2013. Echoing Reay's comments is three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti, who tweeted "'it's time @ indycar @ nascar other sanctioning bodies & promoters work on alternative to catch fencing. There has to be a better solution.'" Nate Ryan, USA Today, February 24, 2013. But as the foregoing historical debate documents, there are better solutions which have been available to the industry for years; time and time again, though, what is getting in the way of those safety improvements is the bottom line to the track owners and the industry.

Smith & Johnson Attorneys, P.C., are experienced in handling race car crash debris litigation. L. Page Graves served as assistant legal counsel and research counsel for one of the families who tragically lost a loved one during the 1998 Michigan International Speedway incident which when, on July 26, 1998, race car driver Adrian Fernandez crashed into the wall at turn 4, and his car’s wheel assembly careened over the fence into the grandstands, killing three spectators and maiming several others. Critical to that successful resolution of the family’s wrongful death claim was counsels’ tireless research and documentation of the motor-sports industry's actual knowledge of the exact risks posed to its fans and its repetitive, reactionary approach to “fixing the problem” each time a spectator got hurt or killed.