Georgian luger dies in horrific training crash

[buickgnx88]

Georgian luger dies in horrific training crash

WHISTLER, B.C. — Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili has died in a horrific Olympic training run on the eve of the Games opening, flying off a high-speed track that has wasted little time showing its teeth.

The 21-year-old lost control of his sled near the finish Friday, went over the track wall and rocketed into a support pole near the finish line at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

The Georgian was coming around the final 270-degree turn on the lightning-fast course, where top sliders have exceeded 145 km/h, when he flipped off his sled and was hurled like a missile into one of the thick metal pillars that supports the canopy above the finish area.

The slider, a blur in his black-and-blue racing suit and white helmet went high in the corner, banking left. His sled swooped out from under him, hit the inside wall and the Georgian flew through the air, turning backwards as he launched into the square support stanchion lining the outside of the track.

There was a collective gasp on the finish dock from officials and athletes as the crash was beamed on the large-screen TVs.

The screens were immediately turned off as crews raced down the track to the stricken racer.

The track is considered the fastest in the world. For some athletes, it's too fast.

The luge competition was scheduled to begin Saturday. There was no immediate word if the men's singles event would be postponed.

Kumaritashvili, a relatively inexperienced luger, had competed in five World Cup races this season, finishing 44th in the world standings.

It was Kumaritashvili's second crash during training for the Vancouver Games. He also failed to finish his second of six practice runs.

The shocking crash cast a pall on the Games, which had been gearing up for a worldwide opening ceremony celebration to be beamed live from B.C. Place. Instead top officials found themselves offering condolences.

In a statement, the IOC confirmed the death "with great regret," saying "doctors were unable to revive the athlete, who died in hospital."

"Our first thoughts are with the family, friends and colleagues of the athlete. The whole Olympic family is struck by this tragedy which clearly casts a shadow over these Games," said International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge.

Added VANOC CEO John Furlong: "We are deeply struck by this tragedy and join the IOC in extending our condolences to the family, friends and teammates of the athlete, who came to Vancouver to follow his Olympic dream."

VANOC officials issued a release saying an investigation was taking place to "ensure a safe field of play." Training was cancelled and members of the International Luge Federation were called for a briefing with team captains from each nation asked to attend a meeting.

"This is a terrible accident," said Josef Fendt, president of the International Luge Federation. "This is the very gravest thing that can happen in sport, and our thoughts and those of the luge family, are naturally with those touched by this event."

Medics were seen performing mouth to mouth on the Georgian, his helmet still on, face up on the cement beside the track and the ambulance. Track officials then ordered all bystanders away.

Medics administered CPR to a bloodied Kumaritashvili before he was lifted into an ambulance. An air-rescue helicopter arrived some eight minutes after the crash. The slider was taken to a medical facility at the athletes village south of Whistler.

Video of the crash was soon posted on YouTube - and pulled down for TV rights violation.

At the finish area, not far from the crash, athletes, coaches and officials awaited word on Kumaritashvili. Then they heard the worst.

"This is the first time we've seen this. It's very sad," said Canadian luge team coach Wolfgang Staudinger, adding he planned to meet with his team to discuss what happened.

The $105-million sliding centre, on the southeast face of Blackcomb Mountain, has been billed as a wild ride and the accident happened at its fastest point.

The 1,450-metre course has 16 turns and drops steeply for 152 metres, the longest drop of any track in the world.

The average grade is about 11 per cent, including two stomach-inverting drops of 20 per cent.

More than a dozen athletes have crashed during Olympic training, with a Romanian woman briefly knocked unconscious.

Defending Olympic champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy lost control on the lower part of the track Friday. He didn't appear to be injured. On Thursday, Romanian women's slider Violeta Stramaturaru crashed and had to be airlifted out.

"I think they are pushing it a little too much," Australia's Hannah Campbell-Pegg said Thursday night after she nearly lost control in training. "To what extent are we just little lemmings that they just throw down a track and we're crash-test dummies? I mean, this is our lives."

American slider Bengt Walden also crashed in training.

"You're trying to let the sled run more and that's when mistakes happen," said Walden.. "Once you think you've got it figured out and you're being calm, that's when things like this happen."

Added Walden: "I don't think they're going to build more faster tracks than this. I think the (governing body) FIL was almost unhappy with how fast the track turned out to be."

The Georgian's crash happened midway through the sixth and final training run.

Just sad, it's too bad that this had to happen...

 

[Omnis]

That sucks. Luge is so freaking dangerous.

 

[boiltheocean]

A sad event for sure. My thoughts go out to his family and the rest of the team, it must be tragic to loose a team member.

EDIT: I've just seen the video and he was so unfortunate to come off the way he did, I've seen people fly off in a similar fashion before but they never exited the side walls. Extremely unfortunate.

 

[Eric.]

I would like to know why they feel that they should broadcast the video of a man's death. Looks like the track is really poorly designed from a safety standpoint. Apparently there have been lots of crashes in training, and putting steel poles along the track is just taunting something bad to happen.

 

[Omnis]

Yeah, nobody wants to luge anymore.

 

[Joey D]

If you are going to participate in something like that you are going to have to assume the risks. It's sad for anyone to die like that that at any sport but I mean really, does anyone think that laying down on a sled and going 90mph is safe?

They showed the crash on NBC about 10 minutes ago and it did make me wonder why no one thought they should put up some sort of protection on exposed steel polls. Crashes are going to happen so you'd think they'd do something to lessen the impact, but I guess it's the same reason race tracks don't have those absorbent crash barriers.

 

[boiltheocean]

I would like to know why they feel that they should broadcast the video of a man's death.

It was live? The did switch off though immediately after the crash as medics rushed in.

The Olympic committee are trying to have the video removed from sites as soon as possible, it's already been taken off youtube. I suspect they'll move on to news sites soon as I watched it off the Huffington Post website.

 

[NISM0_SKYLINE]

They'd played it on ABC and the opening of the Olympics, about 4 times.

I know it's sad, but I have to admit, I think it was fairly quick judging by where and how hard he hit. I don't think any padding would really help though. With that amout of speed they would need a lot of padding.

 

[Eric.]

It was live? The did switch off though immediately after the crash as medics rushed in.

The Olympic committee are trying to have the video removed from sites as soon as possible, it's already been taken off youtube. I suspect they'll move on to news sites soon as I watched it off the Huffington Post website.

I saw it aired on the news tonight. You can't help it when its live, but playing it on the evening news (and I'm sure again at 10) isn't necessary. His family back home will get to watch their relative die multiple times before they even see his body and pay their respects.

Edit: They also showed a few stills of him mid-air and just about to strike the pole, and one immediately as he hits it.

 

[boiltheocean]

I agree, I don't think it is necessary to show the video again and again, I don't mind so much about it being on websites but broadcasting it on TV just shouldn't go on for the reasons Eric's mentioned.

 

[buickgnx88]

If they want to play the video, they should just show him leaving the track up until before he hits the pole. That way it would be more insight into how it happened rather than the unfortunate aftermath.

 

[Only_in_f1]

Horrible, horrible accident.

Really odd to see people thrown from the ice. I believe that track has also had its incidents before...

 

[Bram Turismo]

Looks like the track is really poorly designed from a safety standpoint.

It doesn't help either that the tracks are getting faster and faster every year. They really need to start setting a limit to this sport. All that stands between you and death is a simple sledge. It's sad to hear, but you can't exactly say you're surprised that someone died of riding a sledge down a hill at 90mph...

 

[A2K78]

while this is sad, to be honest pre-event accidents/death are nothing new as it happen in practically every sport, motorsports too often.

As for this accident,all it did for me was recalling the fatal that crash that killed daijiro kato

 

[Zrow]

NBC showing the death three times during primetime television (just before the opening ceremony) was in really, really bad taste. They marketed this to be a family program... glad my five year old niece got to see it in slo-mo. 👎

 

[zed300]

Stupidity on the designers, I say. Designers of the surrounding structure that is.
How come there is poles on the outside of a fast corner, a motorcycle track would be shut down even if the topspeed was only 150kph.
All they had to do was put the structures posts on the inside of the course and hang the canopy out over the course.
He or anyone else was never going to crash toward the inside, physics just won't' allow it.
Anyone could go another 20kph faster and come away with a break in their arm or leg if there was a "landing" area catered for.

Heads WILL roll. This didnt need to happen.

R.I.P. Nodar Kumaritashvili

 

[Gabkicks]

this sorta reminds me of how motorsport used to have super dangerous racetracks. except this is stranger since it's 2010...

 

[Tornado]

Apparently they are starting the races lower on the track than they originally planned in order to bring speeds down. I'm not sure if they did anything to the specific turn, though.

 

[LSX]

NBC showing the death three times during primetime television (just before the opening ceremony) was in really, really bad taste. They marketed this to be a family program... glad my five year old niece got to see it in slo-mo. 👎

Agreed. Though not in prime time, I was shocked to see the same thing with NO warning while eating cereal this morning. On NBC. Very poor taste. They made it as if it was no big deal, when IMO it was one of the most horrible things I've seen. I'm by no means a rubber necker, I don't go ooh-ahh when I see people dying or anything of the sort. I know some people can't get enough of it though, but damn, could they not have just given a run down and people google or bing it if they really wanted the details? I know I didn't.

 

[Joey D]

It's no different then when Fox showed Dale Earnhardt's crash 9 million times after it happen. And they've shown way worse things on TV, just look at how many times the events of September 11th have been shown.

I don't think it's in bad taste at all, it's an event that happened.

 

[LSX]

I know, I was not a fan of that either.

My problem was with them just showing it out of nowhere. Often they will be like "This footage may be disturbing..." Them not doing that is what I meant. Just not my thing I guess.

 

[Alan_G]

this sorta reminds me of how motorsport used to have super dangerous racetracks. except this is stranger since it's 2010...

Absolutely spot on. The kind of feeling I have now is the same as I had after qualifying for the 1994 San Marino F1GP; a couple of bad accidents, one fatality, worries over circuit safety, and a general feeling that it's all getting too fast and on the edge (especially after the banning of TC, ABS and active-suspension).

I'm disappointed and pretty annoyed at the statement that came from the Games, something about the track being at no fault, and the rider being at fault for the fatality. It then goes on to say that measures have been taken - shortening the track to make it slower, altering the ice on the final corner, and in particular, putting up the walls and padding at the end straight.

But this doesn't make sense. It's completely illogical. If the track is deemed safe, why do they need to make changes? Logically, by making changes (3 major changes), it implies that they do fear for the design and safety of the track.

The point is, if another athlete made a similar mistake and took the same line as the Georgian athlete, a fatality or serious injury would be likely. This is what motorsport was like around 20+ years ago. But this is 2010!

With Formula 1 in particular, safety levels are at an expected level for this kind of time - a car can leave the track in any way, at any natural racing angle, and not expect a serious or life-threatening injury. Before 1994, this was not the case. The fact is, at the pre-1995 Imola circuit, if a driver left the circuit in the same way (same speed, angle) as Roland Ratzenberger did, a serious injury or fatality would not be suprising. It is the same case as in the Luge - if someone made the same mistake, took the same line, they would be at great risk of clearing the barrier.

I'm annoyed because I think it's terrible for the organisers to disrespect the athlete, his family and friends, in this way to cover the their own backside for the sake of some damn games. They should take the level of responsibility that they know should be taken. But typically, politics, money and economics gets in the way of it all.

 

[Tornado]

I don't think it's in bad taste at all, it's an event that happened.

Everyone that was even throwing a cursory glance at the Olympics already knew what happened. It was in newspapers, it was on nightly news, it was all over the internet. If NBC wanted to get those people living under a rock up to speed, they could have very easily simply explained what happened. There is no reason whatsoever for the constant broadcasting and rebroadcasting of the accident that NBC was doing, and "they've done worse before" isn't anywhere near a valid excuse.

 

[Joey D]

Everyone that was even throwing a cursory glance at the Olympics already knew what happened. It was in newspapers, it was on nightly news, it was all over the internet. If NBC wanted to get those people living under a rock up to speed, they could have very easily simply explained what happened. There is no reason whatsoever for the constant broadcasting and rebroadcasting of the accident that NBC was doing, and "they've done worse before" isn't anywhere near a valid excuse.

People were curious what happened and most of the videos were taking off-line, NBC wanted to satisfy people's curiosity.

And I still don't see what the big deal is, it's an event that happened, the death wasn't gruesome, and they have shown worse before. Are we really that squeamish as a society to not want to view images of real death? We look at acted death all the time, hell prime time shows often have more gruesome deaths portrayed.

 

[Tornado]

Something being in bad taste has nothing to do with squeamishness.

 

[Joey D]

Should we just censor real life because it happened? Life events aren't all warm and fuzzy. Something like this just shows me how sugar coated things are in our society.

And it has everything to do with being squeamish, look at the definition of the word:

squea·mish (skwmsh)
adj.
1. Easily nauseated or sickened.
2. Easily shocked or disgusted.
3. Excessively fastidious or scrupulous

Many posters in this thread are lining up with the second definition perfectly, they are being shocked and/or disgusted by the sight of the video. Honestly it's not that bad. You don't really even see anything when they play the video and as I've pointed out they have shown way more horrific things on TV.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I didn't really care about NBC showing it multiple times, but it was disrespectful.

 

[Gabkicks]

Didnt CNN show some rndm guy dying (choking on his own blood till he died) after being shot by a cop for no reason in Jamaica? I think that was a bit worse visually than seeing someone hit a pole and stop moving .

 

[Alan_G]

We look at acted death all the time, hell prime time shows often have more gruesome deaths portrayed.

Yeah, I have to agree with this. I don't watch many movies, but a few days ago viewed one. After around 60 seconds, the first murder was carried out; some lunatic psycho using some kind of pneumatic air gun to instantaneously kill some man, punching a hole through the front of his head, blood everywhere, some kind of satisfied expression on the face of the killer.

I find this far more shocking and uncomfortable than the Luge accident on Friday, in particular because there is some stuck-up director & writer thinking they are gracing the world with their obscene "art", and also uncomfortable knowing that people actually enjoy watching it.

Are we really that squeamish as a society to not want to view images of real death?

I agree with this, albeit with some level of caution. I think some sensitivity to viewing real-life death is necessary. To desensitise modern society of viewing real death may be to allow individuals feel less hesitation about carrying out the act of murder, or further, to allow the rest of society to find less wrong with it.


Getting back to the point, after some more thinking it can be only one of two things:

1) The track posed a great danger to the athletes, resulting in the fatality of a competitor; the safety standards on this particular track were inconsistent with those of other tracks. Those responsible for track design should take full responsibility (not necessarily track-designers - there would be a body around them who should be responsible).

OR

2) The Luge governing body's safety standards are below what they should be, and they should take full responsibility.

In fact now that I think about it, surely the International Luge Federation (or whatever the body is) should be responsible to ensure that events are not carried out on tracks which are below safety standards. It doesn't matter that they say "it was safe"; we know it was not safe (and still isn't really). Given the big changes they've made to the track, I can't help but feel disgusted with the comments they have made about it being the athletes fault.

 

[Tornado]

Should we just censor real life because it happened?

Which I totally suggested.

Life events aren't all warm and fuzzy.

Hey, I'm sure I said this too!

And it has everything to do with being squeamish, look at the definition of the word:

I wasn't shocked. I wasn't disgusted. I wasn't nauseated. And yet I still found it in bad taste. Perhaps, then, it doesn't have to do with squeamishness; and has everything to do with being disrespectful and ill-advised.

You don't really even see anything when they play the video and as I've pointed out they have shown way more horrific things on TV.

Here's what they call a play on words:
Are we really that desensitized as a society that we can't tell the difference between actors acting and people actually dying, and therefore feel it okay to treat them as one and the same? You keep saying that we have seen way worse things on TV, and maybe that is a Michigan thing, but I personally can't tell you the last time I saw a nightly news show a scene-by-scene replay of someone's death.