Georgian Luger Accident!

[Rammer]

Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili has been injured in an Olympic training run.
He was coming around the final 270-degree turn, where speeds approach 140 km/h, when he flipped off his sled and was hurled into a metal pole.

He was given chest compressions before taken away in an Ambulance, then by helicopter. He was going 143Km's per hour when he hit the ThunderBird corner (#16 turn) and rode high out of it, and crashed down hard only to be flung off the track into a support pole. He didn't move, I can only hope that he was knocked as he hit, and that explains the lack of movement.

[Rammer]

Prepare to be shocked.

[Tighthead]

The IOc is shutting down the video like nobody's business.

I gave away my luge tickets. Sounds like the track is quite dangerous.

[Rammer]

http://www.torontosun.com/sports/vancou ... 1-qmi.html

The above report is telling us the worst has happened.

[Spud387]

http://www.torontosun.com/sports/vancou ... 1-qmi.html

The above report is telling us the worst has happened.

Yep
http://www.ctvolympics.ca/skeleton/news ... cid=rsstsn

[WestCoastJoe]

February 13, 2010, 2:21 am

Officials Say Athlete, Not Track, Caused Crash

By JONATHAN ABRAMS

New York Times

WHISTLER, British Columbia — The crash that resulted in the death of the luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili was caused by his errors on the course and not a deficiency in the Whistler Sliding Centre course, the Olympic organizing committee and the sport’s international governing body said in a joint statement issued late Friday.

Kumaritashvili, of the Republic of Georgia, lost control of his sled near the end of his training run on the track’s final curve while traveling nearly 90 miles an hour. The crash threw Kumaritashvili over a concrete wall on the left. He slammed into vertical supports over the course and was pronounced dead at a hospital.

“It appears after a routine run, the athlete came late out of curve 15 and did not compensate properly to make correct entrance into curve 16,” the statement said. “This resulted in a late entrance into curve 16 and although the athlete worked to correct the problem he eventually lost control of the sled resulting in the tragic accident. The technical officials of the FIL were able to retrace the path of the athlete and concluded there was no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track.”

While officials did not fault the track, they did make alterations to the course. The Whistler Sliding Centre has created concern since opening in 2007 for its high speeds and frequent crashes.

“Based on these findings the race director, in consultation with the FIL, made the decision to reopen the track following a raising of the walls at the exit of curve 16 and a change in the ice profile,” the statement said. “This was done as a preventative measure, in order to avoid that such an extremely exceptional accident could occur again.”

A news conference will be held Saturday morning, 8:30 a.m. local time, with Tim Gayda, the Vanoc vice president of sport, Svein Romstad, the F.I.L. secretary general, and the Josef Fendt the president of the luge federation.

The Coroners Service of British Columbia transferred the decision to the F.I.L. on when the track can be re-opened, according to the statement. The F.I.L. will reopen the course Saturday morning for training and the start of the men’s Olympic singles luge competition later in the afternoon.

http://vancouver2010.blogs.nytimes.com/ ... sed-crash/

[WestCoastJoe]

7 . Doug, San Diego

February 13th, 2010

12:19 am I would speculate the luge course designers didn't adequately take into account the billiards-like rebounding effect that occurred. Caused either by his panic right turn to negotiate the bank exit, and/or flailing and loss of control, his unexpected trajectory into the inside wall and subsequent rebound had the effect of extending the event further down the course, where outer walls taper low. The fix is taller outer walls extending further downhill from the turn exit, to contain rebounding and tumbling. Column padding is a solution for football, not 90+ mph bodies.

My suspicion is that luge courses are generally designed to protect a sliding dead weight, but not adequately for inadvertent control inputs that can pitch a rider into fluke trajectories.

Another area of reassessment should be the wall-to-straightaway transition at the end of the turn, so that it is not abrupt at the highest speeds. This might have contributed to the accident.

The luges can safely go faster, and I hope they do. It's a matter of adequate attention to course design. It's too bad this young hero had to die to advance the sport.

Of many responses to the article, this one seemed reasonable.

Padding those steel pillars won't save anyone hurtling into them at 90 mph.

A higher retaining wall? Sure.

[KnowItAll]

I beleive they should have something like plexiglass or chain link fence designed to prevent someone from flying right outside the thing.

[Blue In BC]

It was an accident. I'm not pleased they felt in necessary to point out the sledder made an " error ".

Moved this out of CFL Football Forum and merged with existing topic. Thanks. DH

[Rammer]

It was an accident. I'm not pleased they felt in necessary to point out the sledder made an " error ".

Moved this out of CFL Football Forum and merged with existing topic. Thanks. DH

I agree with what they are suggesting, but certainly they have responsibility after the luger makes a mistake, it shouldn't end as abruptly in both respects for the luger or anyone who rides the track down.

Once he left the track at that speed, he would have had a million to one shot at remaining alive. Heck even if he continues down the track, I am not so sure he survives.

[WestCoastJoe]

Repeat viewing of crash dubbed death porn

By Lowell Ullrich, The Province February 15, 2010

No easy decision for news directors to air graphic footage of fatal luge training run armchair Olympian

There ultimately should be only one guiding principle over the decision to air the video of the late Nodar Kumaritashvili that remains responsible for the sombre feel to the opening few days of the Olympics.

If the young man's father, back at home in Georgia, doesn't want to view the tragedy, why should anyone else?

It doesn't work that way, of course, and it didn't on the weekend when rights holders and mainstream broadcast news directors had to make the agonizing decision whether or not to show the accident, or stop the footage before Kumaritashvili hit a post.

CTV took some heat for the decision to air the entire incident. TSN and Sportsnet cut its video off before Kumaritashvili made contact. NBC has shown the accident more than once, and web reaction has wildly varied.

"There's no reason to continue re-showing it like they've been doing," one wrote at newsreelblog.com."If anyone needed another definitive example of our media's moral bankruptcy, then this is it."

"Just hearing about it on the news doesn't bring home how dangerous some sports are and how fragile life is," wrote another. "Not allowing people to see the footage is like holding a viewing in a funeral home with a closed casket -- people don't feel like they've paid their respects and said goodbye."

Another view, same site: "Is this really tragic? This young man decided to really live. He was going to die eventually anyway, just like all of us. But instead of accepting a life that was the equivalent of avoiding death (like many of us humans do), he decided to take risks and attempt to achieve great experiences for himself."

What really got us thinking, however, was an email from a Richmond reader.

"I mean, how many people watched that video of the luge over and over and over ... all the while complaining they shouldn't show that kind of thing?

"I'm as guilty as the rest of them ... saw it at work, came home, looked up the afterpics at another site. What is this sick fascination?"

Some have already taken to calling it death porn.

Networks make the call to put stomach-churning events on air because it is central to explaining what happened to an audience.

The sad truth, however, is that they do so because there are those who simply want to bear witness to sorrow.

And if you want to witness it again and again, it's still available at CTVOlympics.cawith an upfront warning.

Two thoughts only really stand out: you wouldn't want to be a news director making the decision to air that footage; and you simply can't imagine the heartache of a Georgian family whose son isn't coming home from Whistler.

Experiencing the Olympics only through TV and the Internet and see something amusing or outrageous? Drop Armchair Olympian a line at lullrich@theprovince.com during the Winter Games.

Interesting article by Lowell.

For myself, I know what happened. I don't want to necessarily see it on tape. I won't be going out of my way to do so. I wouldn't watch an execution either, given a choice in the matter (I never did see Saddam Hussein take the fall). But then, I wouldn't want to be a surgeon either, or witness an operation.
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It's hard not to take a look when you drive pass an accident scene. All the cars slow down. You look over. Tow truck. Police. Possibly some accident victims. Ambulance.
................

Here is a question for you. As happens sometimes, planes crash. Could you be one of the volunteers called upon to go to the scene of the crash, and help sort out body parts? Someone has to do it. That would be a head-shaker for me.
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About showing the tape of the luge accident. Someone will show it somewhere. And people will look at it. There is a full spectrum of the human condition out there. From respect and sensitivity as top priority, to openness and transparency on the other.

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People choose to do dangerous things, play dangerous sports. Once you decide to put on an Olympics, you don't then decide to suddenly end it because one of the participants has a terrible accident. If you felt that way going in, then you would be opposed to putting on the Olympics in the first place. And there are plenty of people who feel that way.

I am not the biggest fan of the Olympics, but I think they do enough to bring the world together to justify most of what they stand for.

IMO ...

[WestCoastJoe]

Luger Who Died Was Terrified of Track

By SAMANTHA SHIELDS

BAKURIANI, Georgia—The Georgian luger who died in a horrific training accident hours before the opening of the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Friday told his father he was terrified of the track before doing the run that killed him.

"He called me before the Olympics, three days ago, and he said, 'Dad, I'm scared of one of the turns,' " David Kumaritashvili said in an interview at his house in the small mountain town of Bakuriani on Sunday.

"I said, Put your legs down on the ice to slow down, but he said if he started the course he would finish it. … He was brave," Mr. Kumaritashvili's father said, adding that his son had dreamed of being an Olympian from childhood and could have competed in two more Games.

The International Luge Federation has blamed the crash on the luger and not on any "deficiencies in the track," saying that Mr. Kumaritashvili "did not compensate properly to make the correct entrance" into the curve where he slid off the track at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

Despite those assertions, Olympic officials took unusual measures on Saturday to shorten the course by 190 yards to slow the speeds, and they altered the run to keep lugers on the track should they crash.

Josef Fendt, president of the luge federation, said on Saturday that the track is safe, but that it had turned out to be far faster than designers ever intended it to be. He said that when designers drew up plans for the winding icy slope on the side of Blackcomb Mountain, 76 miles north of Vancouver, they anticipated speeds of about 87.5 miles per hour. During test events at the facility last year and in training runs before these Olympics, the lugers had been traveling at speeds of 96 miles per hour.

He should not have been on the track if he was so afraid of it. His fear was well founded in his case.

[WestCoastJoe]

Georgian luger told dad 'I will either win or die'

By Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili

The Associated Press

Posted: 02/15/2010 07:16:28 AM MST

Dodo Kharazishvili, mother of late Georgian olympic luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, cries while looking at photos of her son at their home in the town of Bakuriani, a top ski resort in the Caucasus Mountains. (AP | STR)BAKURIANI, GEORGIA — The father of the Georgian luger killed at the Vancouver Olympics said Monday his son worried the track was too dangerous, but insisted on competing because he had come to the games to try to win.

"He told me: I will either win or die," David Kumaritashvili told The Associated Press. "But that was youthful bravado, he couldn't be seriously talking about death." The father, in an interview at his home in the snow-covered slopes of Georgia's top ski resort, said he had spoken to his son, Nodar, shortly before the fatal training run Friday.

"He told me: Dad, I really fear that curve," the elder Kumaritashvili said. "I'm a former athlete myself, and I told him: 'You just take a slower start.' But he responded: 'Dad, what kind of thing you are teaching me? I have come to the Olympics to try to win."'

People almost always look to blame someone else.

[KnowItAll]

Its up to those who create the courses used by the athletes to ensure their safety. There should have been something to prevent the possibility of anyone flying out of the course. Even if it means less paying customers can watch close up.

If I was a member of his family, we would be suing VANOC and anyone else connected with the design and approval of the course as it was.

[Sir Purrcival]

Goodness me. How many people have taken test runs on that track and that corner without incident?
These are extreme sports people and sometimes accidents happen. If this was such an egregious design then where was the protest before hand? Guess there wasn't one. Is this any different than F1 or Hydro Racing, the Downhill or even Football? There is an element of risk in any of these sports at the levels that they are engaged in such competitions. On rare and tragic occasion, the result is sometimes fatal. Maybe I am silly but I am betting that a lot of experienced sledders had a look and hand in the design of that course and none of them seemed to think it was a problem. Sledders are a select group and a tight knit one and you can bet had their been any wide scale concerns voiced by it, the issue would have been looked at before hand. I don't think much of the suing idea. It won't bring this father's son back and at the end of the day, I don't think there was any negligence. Just a track that maybe exceeded this particular sledders skill level.