serious accident at the track
 

Saturday night I visited a newly open rc track near my town. 9000 square foot , inside off road dirt track. I went on electric night of course to see what the truggy class looked liked. Top notch operation, very well laid out operation with all the new high tech stuff. There was a kid there that drove with his mom 2.5 hours one way just to race. My son, some friends and myself were having a great time watching the action. I was just commenting to my friend how one of the 1/8 scale buggies looked to be driving a little out of control, you know over shooting corners and running into stuff at a high rate of speed.
When the next thing we know one of the corner marshalls was down on the ground. I didn't personally see it happen but one of the 1/8 buggies jumped the table top section, left the track area and hit the marshall in the side of the head. Knocked the "kid" 18-19 year old right down. The owner of the track stopped the race and raced over to the kid and very quickly took control of the situation, they called 911 as soon as it happened. Knocked the poor kid for a loop, he couldn't remember his name,were he was or what he was doing 10 seconds earlier.

I decided it was time to leave shortly after that. What precautions do other tracks take to help deal with this sort of thing? The marshall was standing in his correct area, but maybe was looking the other way when the buggy hit him? Do people wear helmets when they are in the middle of the track marshaling?

stay moving, be light on your feet and watch out for the lawn dart that trys to take out your ankles.

i hvae been hit in the hip with a nitro truggy- it sucks. hope hes okay

The owner of the track I used to frequent got his leg opened up pretty good once, needed stitches. The track is now closed, not because of that, but ever since that happened he lost interest more and more. Then I saw this huge dude marshalling get hit in the neck by a truggy, bruised him and pissed him off pretty good too.

At another track a kid was marshalling, track was a little slick, he went down and broke his arm. I actually want to race but don't because I hate marshalling with extreme prejudice.

Marshalling is a dangerous game. As a driver you have to keep it under control and be aware of marshalls on the track. At our track I have seen them give verbal warnings to people and to everyone to settle down to avoid killing a marshall.

A crack in the melon with a 1/8 scale buggy would be no joke, not suprised the young dude was KO'd.

Hope he'll be Ok.

I have had my e-revo land on a marshals head, I came off a triple that put you about 15 feet up and the total jump distance was about 40 feet. The marshal was turned looking away from oncoming cars. I felt bad but it wasn't like I was out of control or aiming for him, here simply wasn't looking where he should have been. My biggest gripe about marshalling is the nitro guys insist that they must be on the throttle as you pick them up and before you throw them back down. I ate a lot of dirt last summer and got to the point that if I went to pick up someone's car and they didn't let off the throttle I simply threw my hands up and stepped back.

with a good track layout that wouldn't have happend...

I leave the nitro guys upsidedown untill they hit the brakes, for some it takes 10-20sec for them to figure it out:diablo:

when i marshall . I always watch the car coming towards me & not going away from me . But you have to pay attention especially with the 1/8 buggy's & truggy's. I think having a marshall spot next to a jump is a bad idea .

E-revonut

when i go to flip a car over . I just stand there untill they let off the throttle .

<a href="http://media.photobucket.com/image/catcher/neeshiegirl/Dee7 friends/Steveandrew2006_104.jpg?o=140" target="_blank"><img src="http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg108/neeshiegirl/Dee7%20friends/Steveandrew2006_104.jpg" border="0"></a> this gear should work.

I dont like the fact that marshalling is done on a rota basis. If I go to a track, i want to race and not marshal. I think the owner of the track should pay marshals who are willing to do it, and let every one else just race.

Do you know how expensive that would be?!? Clubs don't make profit, and 30 race fees aren't going to cover all the running costs plus employing marshals!

At our local track, none of the marshal points are in dangerous places, and if there are any that could come 'under attack', they have 7 foot high fences around the marshal point to prevent that kind of issue.

I can see them taking away the main jump section (you can easily cut it off due to the track design, and still have 40 second laps) if there is an electric class though, as I have almost got outside the track area before - which is dangerous.

It's fair enough that a nitro driver blips the throttle or revs to let the marshal know that they are there, and to keep their engine running (unfortunately :lol:), but not when a marshal is next to them - all sorts of stuff could end up in their eyes/face. This was particularly unpleasant at our track's old location, where sheep would jump over the fence and crap all over the track...

Now that's funny right there :lol: :lol: :lol:

Marshals should not be positioned next to or within a cars reach of a big jump. they should be in the corner after the landing. They should also recomend in all drivers meeting that when marshaling you should where gloves (nitro or electric doesnt matter), covered shoes (no sandals or slip-ons) and most importantly some clear safety glasses.

when marshalling always remember to watch YOUR section NOT the race.

We had an accident at our track this year, marshal got hit in the side of the head by a truggy, was out of it for a little while. He also didn’t put on his florescent jacket..

Guy tried to sue the track owner but at the end of the day motorsport can be dangerous and you enter the track at you own risk!

+100:smile:

I've seen people get hit in the head with cars(mostly slashes). Its not fun at all. There is an older guy at our track that got hit in the head with a T4 that had the one long body clip going across to both body posts and the end of the clip caught the guys head and he ended up needing to get stitched up. My local rack doesn't let just anyone marshall anymore. you need to be a racer(no fans), and above a certain age. I've personally had my finger mangles when a 8 yr old kid didn;t have a gear over on his slash and when I went to marshall him he hit the throttle.

Now if they hit the throttle I just watch them and wait until they are done:mdr:. I think people need to see where they are at, where the cars are coming from, and not stand by the jumps. Some common sense will save you in the medical bills.

For whatever reason, I was marshaling once at an indoor track (read: electric only) and one guy was flipped over, so I jogged over to his car and as I bent down to flip it, he gave it a burst of throttle. He wasn't revving it all before, but only just as I bent down.

I got a face full of dirt (a good bit in my eyes), and so I proceeded directly off the track.

There were about 10 people on the driver stand and I was the ONLY marshall (it was open practice). They weren't too happy at the guy (who by the way, is a complete ass for blipping the throttle on his ELECTRIC car...)

I've heard of an instance where someone was killed while marshaling. A 1/8 scale buggy nailed the guy in the temple off a large triple and he was dead before he hit the ground.

Your a better man than myelf, I'd would have stomped on his buggy, What an Asshole.

You could've had scratched you eyes or worse.:diablo:

To people who think that the racers shouldn't marshal and the track should pay people to do it..... if it were like this, people probably wouldn't marshal just to help out and because they are a good person and want to help out fellow racers, they would only do it for the pay. And my guess would be that the track would end up with people who wouldn't do their job right or would just mess around and use up time just for pay. If you race, you should marshal (unless you have a disability that prevents you from marshaling). It's just the right thing to do and you are helping out fellow racers, and if your car flipped during the race, you would want someone to quickly flip it over so you can continue with the race, so do the same for others.


I always wear Mechanix gloves when I marshal. I learned the hard way why you should always wear gloves when marshaling.... burned my hand on an engine head flipping over a 1/8 nitro buggy.

Should be more like 1:1 racing/ soccer- have a yellow card for dangerous driving/ behavour, then a red card for a repeat offence- in the case of revving an engine as a marshal tends to your inverted car, just pick it up and turn it off/ pinch the fuel line to shut it down- no excuses for being an ass hat to someone trying to help you. If they complain or give you abuse for getting redcarded/ black flagged, turn their r/c into a frizbee....

The most dangerous task of a marshall is retrieving cars from the landing zone of a big jump. Due to the jumps you can't always see the cars coming so you have to be quick. I have seen many guys hit at our track but normally they are hit when starting a race with the nitros. Bad track design at our track means the cars can leave the track down the main straight and clean up the guys doing the starting.

Lucky for me, I've not encountered much incident thus far. I've learnt to keep my hands protected with Pit Gloves. Saves you from hot engines and easier pick up. I always keep my eyes on the track and be on my feet. This way, I can better appreciate the situation and be ready to act against anything.

Wow that sucks to hear. Worst marshalling "accident" that happened to me when was a 1/8 nitro buggy flipped over and went WOT while upside down and gave my knuckles alot of tire burn.