Georgian luger killed in training accident - RIP but was it avoidable ?

Son Of A Vidic · 13-02-2010 02:45AM

Poor soul that's tragic, but the fcuking saps who designed the course, did they not do a risk assessment?

13-02-2010 02:56AM

Surely there could have at least been some sort of higher rim at that bend. I mean from the looks of it momentum-wise I don't see how this *wasn't* going to happen eventually.

Not that I know anything about bob sleighing.

Ronan Keating · 13-02-2010 03:44AM

Did he whack his head of the pillar?

robinph · 13-02-2010 03:57AM

Buceph wrote: »

This is supposedly one of the most challenging courses in the world. The Georgian guy had only been in the sport for two years. I'd question even letting someone with such a small amount of experience compete at a high level where people push themselves as hard as possible. He might have been very good at it, when things were going well. But he wouldn't have had the same natural reactions of someone who has been competing in the sport since they were a child.

Not unusual to come into the sliding events late, after failing as a sprinter or something. Although that guy was relatively young I believe.

FatherTed · 13-02-2010 04:11AM

Like any sport where extreme speeds are achieved, accidents happen. Look at Ayrton Senna or Dale Earnhardt, probably the best ever drivers in their motor racing codes losing their lives. So there are always risks with a sport like this.

As for this particular track, yes it is very fast with the world record speed for the luge broken recently on it. Also in the last few days for practice runs, there hae been a lot of crashes, even the Gold medal favourite crashed.

Also saw some "expert" talking about it tonight that he has no problems for the top 12 competitors but below that the competitors are simply not as experienced.

ARGINITE · 13-02-2010 04:37AM

=FatherTed wrote:

As for this particular track, yes it is very fast with the world record speed for the luge broken recently on it. Also in the last few days for practice runs, there hae been a lot of crashes, even the Gold medal favourite crashed.

The death of Ayrton Senna resulted in new safety measures in the sport, hopefully this will have the same affect here.

If what you are saying regarding crashes is true then the track should be closed and the necessary changes made to the track, even I looking at that corner can see it is very dangerous.

What were they thinking putting the poles so close to the track! Tree huggers or not, the poles should be a good distance away from the track. The only possible solution at this late hour is to extend the track side up higher preventing the same situation happening again.

bnt · 13-02-2010 11:07AM

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

Jesus Christ - why would you place a load of steel poles there ??? By all means hold up the roof etc again pre empting the inevitable smart ass comment but from a safety point of view that's lunacy.

I think they could have done a better job on the roof design, but they can't start modifying the structure at this late stage, except (perhaps) to remove the roof entirely. They could have padding on those columns, and I expect we will see some appearing now. The guy was going over 140 km/h, so I wonder how much that would have helped?

I won't say anything about the structural requirements of a roof that might need to carry massive snow loads because, you say, that would be smart ass.

MagicMarker · 13-02-2010 11:11AM

Ronan Keating wrote: »

Did he whack his head of the pillar?

Some of your posts have been pretty fúcking retarded.

WTF is the point of this question?

FunnyStuff · 13-02-2010 12:09PM

"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," they 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."

This from the Vancouver Olympic commitee (FIL) just smacks of gross indecency. They might as well have just said "sure its his own fault, he didnt steer properly".

I guess the arrogance can be expected...... bit of french in them after all.

bnt · 13-02-2010 12:15PM

Latest I'm reading is that there are going to be changes to the course: they're raising the height of the wall at that point.

The wall will be raised at the exit of Curve 16, the last on the course and where Nodar Kumaritashvili of the republic of Georgia lost control, went airborne and slammed into a steel pole, and other unspecified changes will be made to the ice.
They called the accident "extremely exceptional," however, and said it was triggered by Kumaritashvili's failure to compensate for coming late out of the next-to-last curve, not by "deficiencies in the track."
After studying the crash on video, they said, it was determined that the luger was offline coming out of Curve 15 and "did not compensate properly to make correct entrance into Curve 16."

http://sports.espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2010/luge/news/story?id=4910883

Gamesnash.ie: Pat · 13-02-2010 12:16PM

FunnyStuff wrote: »

"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," they 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."

This from the Vancouver Olympic commitee (FIL) just smacks of gross indecency. They might as well have just said "sure its his own fault, he didnt steer properly".

I guess the arrogance can be expected...... bit of french in them after all.

Obviously he did not negotiate the course properly / a mistake was made but do they not see the point that it is the surrounds of the track after a mistake has been made that has caused the tragic death. That's a bizarre statment to make.

calex71 · 13-02-2010 12:26PM

Surely they could have put some padding around that, something like what they use in the down hill ski events? Might not have saved the poor guy either but can't imagine it would have been any worse than bare steel and concrete.

ilovelamp2000 · 13-02-2010 12:57PM

Who else is now more likely to watch the luge in the coming days and weeks ?

Cookie_Monster · 13-02-2010 02:09PM

medicman2009 wrote: »

Poor soul that's tragic, but the fcuking saps who designed the course, did they not do a risk assessment?

Of course they would have done. The Canadians have been using it for months without incident too. He obviously wasn't good enough to be fully in control, only 2 years as stated in another post, that is not enough time to be taking on the most challenging courses in the world

Rosco1982 wrote: »

Who else is now more likely to watch the luge in the coming days and weeks ?

yep

bonerm · 13-02-2010 02:42PM

I know google like to stay topical with their homepage, but you'd think they might want to consider changing todays image. :rolleyes:

Busi_Girl08 · 13-02-2010 02:47PM

^ Pretty sure it's meant to be a tribute to yer man...

karma_ · 13-02-2010 03:02PM

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Of course they would have done. The Canadians have been using it for months without incident too. He obviously wasn't good enough to be fully in control, only 2 years as stated in another post, that is not enough time to be taking on the most challenging courses in the world

yep

So your an expert in the luge all of a sudden and are in a position to estimate the talent of the guy competing in it?

On your point about the Canadians using it for a while. Yes they have, and they also stopped any other competitor from using it thus giving their own entrants a competitive advantage. This also resulted in athletes from other nations not getting used to a very fast and dangerous track. They have to accept some kind of responsibility for this accident rather than whitewash it.

Then again, opinions are like asshóles, everyones got one.

Ronan Keating · 13-02-2010 04:50PM

MagicMarker wrote: »

WTF is the point of this question?

His face looked very bloodied.

amacachi · 13-02-2010 05:41PM

How does whoever the **** was involved in the design of that corner manage to feed themselves? Fcuking hell.

I'll be far less likely to watch the Luge and Skeleton now, usually watch it any change I get.

Also what the **** is that statement about? In Motor Racing they've managed to mature enough to say "Yeah, maybe we should try to stop people from dying and **** when they crash." Mind-boggling.

Georgian luger killed in training accident - RIP but was it avoidable ?

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