24 replies to this topic

[John B]

A double tragedy for one family, and according to the description below one of the strangest accidents I've heard. I can't imagine the collision at 250 MPH if that was correct.


From ESPN.com

The details of the accident will surely be discussed and dissected over time as the tragedy continues to sink in. According to reports, the 59-year-old Shelly was making a test pass in a newly delivered racecar at Tulsa Raceway Park when the dragster's front end lifted vertically somewhere near half-track, sending it into an uncontrollable blowover.

The car crashed heavily back onto the racing surface facing the starting line. Then, with her husband, Paul, looking on helplessly, the racecar accelerated back toward the starting line at high speed, crashing into the team's tow vehicle which was parked at the starting line with Shelly's son, 36-year-old Brian, sitting inside the cab.

Shelly and Brian lost their lives almost simultaneously in what those in attendance have described as one of the sport's most horrifying mishaps. Police estimated the car hit the truck at 250 mph. And while the accident itself is an unspeakably freakish tragedy, the circumstances and magnitude of the two lives ultimately lost seem to add an even greater dimension of inexplicable sadness to what was witnessed.

[BorderReiver]

Horrible, horrible incident. Not the most bizarrely tragic I've heard of though (who was the driver who got a stuck throttle, left the circuit through a gate and slammed into a passing taxi killing himself and everyone else?).

Unfortunately racing is also this. . .

[Richard Jenkins]

Originally posted by BorderReiver
Horrible, horrible incident. Not the most bizarrely tragic I've heard of though (who was the driver who got a stuck throttle, left the circuit through a gate and slammed into a passing taxi killing himself and everyone else?).

Cabianca.


To be more precise from Motorsport Memorial:

Cabianca was carrying out a private testing session with his Scuderia Castellotti Cooper - Ferrari Formula 1 car at the Aeroautodromo di Modena. As the track was being used at the same time for an event of a racing school, Cabianca completed a number of laps at reduced speed until the students left it, when he sped up his pace. Cabianca suffered his accident when he was completing his ninth lap at speed, sometime between 18h00 and 18h30. Possibly due to a gearbox failure - his mechanic later stated that the car gearbox was not adequate to a Formula 1 car, and the rescuers that attended Cabianca found the car stuck in fouth gear - he failed to reduce the speed of his Cooper for the slow, tight turn at the end of the straight opposite to the grandstands. To avoid a crash, Cabianca looked for a escape route, and drove the car through the gate that separated it from Via Emilia, one of the most important routes of Northern Italy. That gate had been left open as trucks were transporting gravel to the circuit for the construction of a new parterre for spectators. In the accident the Cooper first hit the eighteen-year old Enrico Moro, who was spectating inside the circuit itself, then it crossed Via Emilia and finished at Via Zucchi, a street in front of the track, where it crashed against the wall of a workshop. Seven vehicles were involved in the accident: a bicycle, a motorcycle, a small bypassing mini-van (a "Giardinetta"), three parked cars and Cabianca's Cooper itself. Gino Arboresi, the driver of the mini-van, and Eugenio Stefano, the motorcycle rider, were killed instantly. The Giardinetta was carrying heavy blocks of metal; one of them crushed and killed the bicyclist Ivo Messori. Cabianca was found conscious, but passed away that same day at 21h00 at the S. Agostino hospital, located very near the track. Moro, hit at almost full speed, was badly injured but fortunately survived.



The "taxi" is myth.

[ehagar]

Reading a description like that the accident is hard to imagine...

[JForce]

Wow. Given the number of times these things flip over, it's a wonder someone didn't see this coming. I guess some more adequate safety measures, like sealing the strip area completely will be passed as a result, a good thing I suppose. Still, a tragic freak accident.

[John B]

I was wondering if some sort of automatic throttle shut-off system could be activated if wheels get off the ground or the like.

BTW the full names of the deceased were Shelly and Brian Howard.

[Lukin]

I was told (not 100% sure) that the cars don't have any electrics connected to the engine for a F1 style kill switch.

Is this true?

[Williams]

Originally posted by Lukin
I was told (not 100% sure) that the cars don't have any electrics connected to the engine for a F1 style kill switch.

Is this true?

I beleive NHRA mandates an external kill switch in line with the battery. I don't know about a driver-accessible one. Anyone ?

[Bluesmoke]

OUCH! Sucks to be the husband!

What is a near senior citizen (a woman at that!!!) doing in a machinery that does 250mph?

[senna da silva]

Originally posted by Bluesmoke
OUCH! Sucks to be the husband!

What is a near senior citizen (a woman at that!!!) doing in a machinery that does 250mph?

Sexism and ageism all in one post. Nice going!

A tradgedy indeed.

[FordPrefect]

I've read a view posts from people who actually witnessed the accident but this is about the best description, and attempt at an explanation, that I have seen. Very tragic.


From Tulsa Raceway Park

On Saturday, April 2, 2005 Shelly Howard, and her son Brian Howard, were killed in a racing accident at Tulsa Raceway Park.

The accident occurred while making a test run of Shelly’s new dragster during the bracket racing program. At 10:12 p.m., Shelly made her third pass of the evening in the tower lane. The car left the starting line in what appeared to be a problem-free run. After passing the 1/8 mile mark at 201 miles per hour, the dragster began what is referred to as a blow-over.

A blow-over occurs when too much air goes under the front wing of the dragster causing the front end to lift. At this point, Shelly lifted off the accelerator. As the dragster became vertical, it rotated 180 degrees on its axis and then touched down on all four wheels and against the wall with the car now facing the starting line. The impact of the dragster to the pavement could have been severe enough to cause Shelly Howard to lose consciousness.

This theory is supported by the fact that she did not hit the kill switch, deploy the chutes or turn the fuel supply off to the motor. At that point, either the throttle stuck wide open, or, Shelly’s foot jammed the throttle down. Extensive damage to the dragster and the onboard “black box” made it impossible to determine which occurred.

The car continued down the track backwards making almost continuous contact with the tower lane wall, while the tires were spinning in the opposite direction. The dragster passed the ¼ mile stripe in 6.633 seconds at 115 miles an hour. The car continued down the track backwards until approximately 1,500 feet from the starting line when it ceased its rearward momentum and began to travel forward towards the starting line, under full acceleration.

After traveling several hundred feet uptrack towards the starting line, the car swerved into the spectator lane and then back into the tower lane at the 660’ foot line. The car made hard contact with the wall in the tower lane at the 320’ foot mark and light contact with the tower lane wall at the starting line while traveling an estimated 250 miles per hour. At 125’ past the starting line, the dragster struck the crew’s chase car. The chase car’s occupant, Brian Howard, was sitting in the rear seat, and along with Shelly, was killed instantly. The force of the collision hurled both the dragster and the chase car 225’ through a rear burn-out wall and into an open field and stream. An investigation by the Tulsa Police Department ruled their deaths an accident. No other injuries were reported.

[FordPrefect]

Originally posted by Bluesmoke
OUCH! Sucks to be the husband!

What is a near senior citizen (a woman at that!!!) doing in a machinery that does 250mph?

What is she doing? Winning mostly.

from NHRA

Howard, a three-time national event winner and Division 4 champion in 2001 and 2003, was runner-up the last two years at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. She was the 2004 Jeg’s Allstars champion and finished third last season in Division 4 points. This season she already had won the Division 4 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series opener at Houston Raceway Park.

Howard, who began racing in 1978, scored her first and final national event victories at the Mopar Parts Mile-High Nationals in Denver, in 1998 and 2001, respectively, and she also was victorious in Topeka in 2001. She also finished second in Division 4 in 2002 and third in 1999 and 2000. She had recorded eight divisional event wins.

Howard, a registered nurse, is survived by her husband, Dr. Paul Howard, and daughters Jennifer and Tracy.

[Locai]

I also read that on ESPN's website. What a freaky accident!

My guess is that the only thing that would have stopped this would have been some sort of remotely activated kill switch. I wonder if such a device might not become mandatory now? I know that NASCAR and NHRA have a disdain for electronics, but safety is paramount.

[random]

Originally posted by Locai
My guess is that the only thing that would have stopped this would have been some sort of remotely activated kill switch.

A remote kill switch would be tremendously difficult to implement and cost a fortune. Sure, a simple remote control could do it, but then any nut in the grandstands could start shutting down cars. No, a system like this would have to use a digital signal and heavy duty encryption. Each car would need a complex, independently addressable device that was rugged as hell.

But the real problem is the master control device, the one the officials would use to shut down cars. That computer would have as physically secured as any computer in a secure data center. Computer security experts will tell you that without physical security, there is no security. Any lamo (script-kiddy level) hacker that has 2 minutes of physical access to computer can usually crack it wide open, or at least copy off the data.

Since this computer would be traveling with a circus, it would be a massive pain in the rear to insure no one who wasn't supposed to ever got 2 minutes with the thing. Basically, you would need guards watching it 24/7. Including while it was sitting in race control, traveling across the country, parked in truck stops, stored...

I'm not aware of anyone outside the government who has remote, encrypted, rugged, kill switches. So figure a few million to design and implement the solution, and another million per year for the life of the project to maintain and guard the thing.

A massively expensive solution to fix a problem that only happens in 1 out of every 10,000 runs. The cost benefit ratio just doesn't make it any sense. A better solution would be to mandate each track have a wall behind the start line. A wreck like this would still kill a driver, but crew members and fans would be protected.

[Rene]

Awful story

[Lukin]

A lot of drag cars now have data acquisition systems, often with ride height sensors. Using this in a feedback system, it shouldn't be too difficult to implement an electric cutout should either front or rear wheels lift off the road more than a certain distance. Same with a lateral g sensor. Under normal conditions there would be very little lateral load, but in an accident there would surely be lateral loading/impact.

[habu]

I rarely post here, read everything alot though....

I also gravitate over to some of the Nitro boards, and according to another Top Alcohol pilot (mis-leading class name... they allow blown Alcohol based fuel and Injected, non-blown, Nitromethane in the same class. Shelly Howard drove an injected Nitro dragster). Anyway, according to several of the people that know this much better than I do is that an ignition kill-switch is basically useless once a nitro motor is at WOT. Basically it Diesels rendering the spark-plugs useless. Another problem would be IF you could kill the ignition the motor would lean dramatically and increase the RPMs. As in this case with a most likely incapcitated driver, the seconds of high-rpm would still not have completely prevented this tragedy. To quote directly from one post.

Firstly a mag switch is rendered almost useless after you step on the throttle as detonation (1300 + degree cyl) takes over. Heck the spark plugs are gone by half track. I shook a mag off a single mag funny car years ago at 300' and still went 224mph under power. Secondly, when you pull the fuel shut off the is a great amount of fuel still logged in the system and it will continue to run for several seconds before shutting down

Here is a link where nitro keyboard crew chiefs and a couple real crew chiefs are talking about this and how to prevent it.

[random]

Originally posted by habu
Anyway, according to several of the people that know this much better than I do is that an ignition kill-switch is basically useless once a nitro motor is at WOT. Basically it Diesels rendering the spark-plugs useless. Another problem would be IF you could kill the ignition the motor would lean dramatically and increase the RPMs.

Seems to me they'd just use a fuel-cut switch instead of a spark cut switch. It may be a little harder to implement, but cut the fuel and any motor will shut right down.

[habu]

I agree but I am not sure how possible it would be to make sure that the motor was completely dry before something like this could happen. I know I've seen these things keep trying to run after the fuel was shut down. Sound impossible I know, but it's happened.


Then again it doesn't address the security issue above. There isn't anything stopping a "script-kiddie" from hacking the network and killing cars from the stands.



I was just thinking.... wouldn't water work ?
It'd destroy the motor, but couldn't you bypass the fuel and have each car carry x-amount of water and in the event of this happening, a bypass valve would switch the car from fuel to water. It's stop dead, right ????

[Racecar]

Seems to me a simple hoop over each rear wheel would prevent something like that ever happening again.


On the other hand - read the ticket, folks. Motor racing is dangerous.

[xype]

I'm sorry if this is inappropriate - but wtf? Riding a rocket and then being shocked when something goes wrong?

From how I understand, those cars have no real steering, hardly an effective braking system and no safety systems that really work (see posts above mine). It's like jogging trough your local zoo's lion cage every morning and complaining when the lion bites your leg off.

That was no freak accident, that was an accident waiting to happen. Just like racing on ovals is.

[RDM]

Originally posted by xype
I'm sorry if this is inappropriate - but wtf? Riding a rocket and then being shocked when something goes wrong?

From how I understand, those cars have no real steering, hardly an effective braking system and no safety systems that really work (see posts above mine). It's like jogging trough your local zoo's lion cage every morning and complaining when the lion bites your leg off.

That was no freak accident, that was an accident waiting to happen. Just like racing on ovals is.

I'm inclined to agree. Certainly, a very real tragedy for those involved, and undoubtedly terrifying to witness, but it does all sound rather Darwin-esque.

[wiligates]

Originally posted by xype
I'm sorry if this is inappropriate - but wtf? Riding a rocket and then being shocked when something goes wrong?

From how I understand, those cars have no real steering, hardly an effective braking system and no safety systems that really work (see posts above mine). It's like jogging trough your local zoo's lion cage every morning and complaining when the lion bites your leg off.

That was no freak accident, that was an accident waiting to happen. Just like racing on ovals is.

I don't think people are shocked by it the way your implying .Simply asking if something similar could be prevented . Just like any accident in any sport . When **** happens there are checks and balances made to see if problems can be rectified . This was a one in a million . Don't you agree its a good thing to ask if we can do something that makes something safer ?I attend drag racing events regularly and safety at these events is paramount . Yes they are virtual rockets but they are 99% of the time safer than it is to drive a street car down your local highway .

[xype]

Originally posted by wiligates

I don't think people are shocked by it the way your implying .Simply asking if something similar could be prevented . Just like any accident in any sport . When **** happens there are checks and balances made to see if problems can be rectified . This was a one in a million . Don't you agree its a good thing to ask if we can do something that makes something safer ?I attend drag racing events regularly and safety at these events is paramount . Yes they are virtual rockets but they are 99% of the time safer than it is to drive a street car down your local highway .

Sure, but at what point the investments in safety stop delivering results? I'm just saying that at those speeds short of building the drag racers on trails and stuff 200 tonns of airbags around them such things will always happen. I don't think it can be prevented that well unless you start to cutting away from the show. Radio controlled dragsters that people can only watch with binoculars aren't fun, I guess.

So either call Max Mosley to castrate the show or expect such accidents to happen. I don't think there's a good middle ground for such cases.

[LB]

Originally posted by xype
I'm sorry if this is inappropriate - but wtf? Riding a rocket and then being shocked when something goes wrong?

From how I understand, those cars have no real steering, hardly an effective braking system and no safety systems that really work (see posts above mine). It's like jogging trough your local zoo's lion cage every morning and complaining when the lion bites your leg off.

That was no freak accident, that was an accident waiting to happen. Just like racing on ovals is.

A lot more people have died road racing than on drag strips.