Inquest resists safety calls for Oliver’s Mount

[Bob]

Calls for additional safety measures to be installed at Scarborough’s Oliver's Mount circuit have been resisted by a coroner, following an inquest over the death of a sidecar passenger at the Cock o' the North festival.

Colin Hardman, 58, ploughed into a wooden fence when rider Gary Bryan lost control at 80mph as they approached S bends at the top of Quarry Hill during the Cock o' the North motorcycling festival. Coroner Michael Oakley suggested it was up to those who licensed the event to see if safety measures were needed, adding the 2.4-mile street circuit was "unique in this part of the country".

Recording a verdict of accidental death, he said: "Motorcycle racing of any sort is a dangerous sport and those who do it are fully aware of the dangers."

[xwhatsit]

I think that's rather sensible. I don't race motorcycles myself; I struggle to ride them at a sedate pace on the road -- however, I do know a little about motor-racing in general and while I understand the need for circuits to be made safe, I think you can go a little far. Any form of motor-racing is dangerous, and anybody who participates understands that as common sense. One of the things I worried about when I heard about Peter Brock's death (especially after the Top Gear incident) was all the usual `think-of-the-children' type people to start asking for vehicles and tracks to be wrapped in bubble-wrap and power restricted to no more than 3HP per litre. The guy's death is of course very sad but you cannot plan for all contingencies.

I'm glad that there still seem to be some people with common sense in such matters around.

[sAsLEX]

I'm glad that there still seem to be some people with common sense in such matters around.

Though after the death at bathhurst they are thinking along the lines of moving the driver inwards in the vehicle as though the roll cage took alot of the force of the impact it obviously still hit him.... rip

[xwhatsit]

F1s don't have the rollcage of course; they got the `tub'. Back in the 80s vehicles used to be built with the drivers feet hanging out in front of the wheels. Now that's against the rules, but with the strength of that tub it wouldn't actually matter if your feet were right out the front. I'm not sure of the exact details of Porter's crash but was it a result of the actual design of the rollcage? I heard it hit the driver's door.

There's very little that any amount of engineering can do when somebody hits you straight into your door while you're stationary and they're going that quickly. The way those Supercar drivers drive though I'm surprised there hasn't been more injuries.

[sAsLEX]

F1s don't have the rollcage of course; they got the `tub'. Back in the 80s vehicles used to be built with the drivers feet hanging out in front of the wheels. Now that's against the rules, but with the strength of that tub it wouldn't actually matter if your feet were right out the front. I'm not sure of the exact details of Porter's crash but was it a result of the actual design of the rollcage? I heard it hit the driver's door.

There's very little that any amount of engineering can do when somebody hits you straight into your door while you're stationary and they're going that quickly. The way those Supercar drivers drive though I'm surprised there hasn't been more injuries.

Hijack- F1 have roll over protection though seen a few sliding on their "roof" over the last few years

Yeah impacted his door at a fair rate of knots whilst he was stationary perpendicular to the track