Malta Car Show Crash

Yes, safety was ridiculous. Paul Bailey was the driver/owner. He's got a collection that includes a P1 and LaFerrari too. There's a thread on Pistonheads about it all. Hope everyone recovers ok.
 
Indeed what a shame. I think it would be harsh to point the finger too much. Ok the guy was travelling at top speed when he lost it, but then you wouldn't have spectators on the side of an F1 track with cars going past at 200mph with no crash protection, so you should't do so anywhere else.
 
Very, very sad and what a horrible experience for all involved.
In my opinion there is no way you can possibly lay any blame on the driver - those barriers wouldn't have stopped a go-kart.
 
Totally the drivers fault, he stuck two wheels on the grass.
Spectator safety was shocking I agree, but look at the WRC spectators they are mental standing where they do!
 
Very sad, but I do think you can lay a lot of the blame on the driver. He's the one controlling the car within the environment he's in...it's not like he is a teenager with zero experience, a case of more money and ego than his talent. He shouldn't have been doing that type of speed in those settings. Hope he get's a fair amount of time for that!
 
It was an accident.

Whether it was due to negligence or a mistake or a technical issue, its an accident that can happen to the best of us. I am not condoning him but trying to be a bit pragmatic.

Spectator protection was zero and that is a big shame from the organizers.

The driver went on the verge at which point the 918 was lost completely. For your info the car is an all wheel drive car so had the protections been turned on and not what i assume being driven in HOT LAP (there are 5 modes all degenerating the protections witth RACE MODE AND HOT LAP the least protected), then the accident might have been avoided.

Unfortunately 2 members that belong to my same club were critically injured, a mother and a 6 year old girl.
 
It was driver error but it wasn't his fault that track safety was such an afterthought. He bought his car over from England to raise money for charity. When you are driving at those sorts of speeds (I don't think he was anywhere near 200mph was he?) then you should be behind the same sort of crash protection as GP circuits because accidents can and do happen. End of story. It's a miracle that so far there haven't been any fatalities.
 
In a racing environment there will always be driver error, and when there are collisions with other cars then it's right to apportion blame in that regard. When a vehicle leaves the track and hits spectators the only cause of their injuries is the lack of protection - that is not the driver's fault. With WRC it's a different kettle of fish due to the location of the stages - in my mind there is no excuse on a circuit to expose spectators to that level of risk.
 
Scooba_Steve said:
In a racing environment there will always be driver error, and when there are collisions with other cars then it's right to apportion blame in that regard. When a vehicle leaves the track and hits spectators the only cause of their injuries is the lack of protection - that is not the driver's fault. With WRC it's a different kettle of fish due to the location of the stages - in my mind there is no excuse on a circuit to expose spectators to that level of risk.

Well said.
 
original guvnor said:
It was driver error but it wasn't his fault that track safety was such an afterthought. He bought his car over from England to raise money for charity. When you are driving at those sorts of speeds (I don't think he was anywhere near 200mph was he?) then you should be behind the same sort of crash protection as GP circuits because accidents can and do happen. End of story. It's a miracle that so far there haven't been any fatalities.

Yes true - those were my thoughts.
 
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