Horrible Luge Accident Day 1

[ghouse]

 

[italian_stallion21]

Ouch.

 

[ghouse]

They say the Vancouver track is the fastest ever built....and the most dangerous.
This guy was doing 147 kph when he slamed into that pole.
A woman crashed yesterday and was knocked unconscious.

 

[Toze]

He died -- widely reported.

 

[TheRob]

I think he must have been dead on contact. I just saw it on CTV. That was brutal.

Hard to get excited about everything when something so tragic has already happend.

 

[Toze]

already pulled off Youtube and now that he's dead its possible it won't be shown again on CTV or anywhere.

had to have died on impact.

so much for the celebrations.

 

[Polska]

IOC out in full force on youtube

 

[ghouse]

Just saw it on TV and its even worse looking than this video above...
They are putting up hockey glass or plexiglass all along that section to prevent this happening again.
A woman yesterday did the same thing at the same part of the track.
So fast and up so high off the turn comeing down and catching the inside of the corner causeing the flip.
Horrible....sad.
Experienced riders wont have the problem they say as they know how to react to these speeds but the lesser experienced riders trying so hard for gold are the ones haveing problems.

 

[Polska]

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Fcuknig horrible...........

 

[Regs]

IOC out in full force on youtube

You make it sound like that is a bad thing.

I've seen it once and to be honest, wish I hadn't

Besides, it is more likely that the broadcasters are asking youtube to bring down olympic event videos for obvious reasons.

 

[Polska]

Fcuknig horrible...........

It is but these guys are nucking futz... They know the risks going in...

comparable to riding a street bike i think.....

Too change it up a little.... Haven't heard from dude in a while.....

A birdy told me he and westcoast have settled there differences and are competing in the 2 man luge

 

[Polska]

and

R.I.P.
Nodar Kumaritashvili

At least he died doing what he enjoyed and loved.

 

[cascadesoccer]

Im not sure on everyone else, but this totally takes away from all of the excitement of the opening ceremonies and the lighting of the cauldron tonight for me. Not that I was olympic crazy by any means, but what a terrible start to a great event. RIP Nodar Kumaritashvili

 

[Yoda]

Olympic Committee is hard at work on YouTube today.
Pulled all videos already.

MacLeans.ca has this posted on their site:

Death on luge track leads to questions about course, Canadian competitiveness
Athletes find the course ‘exceedingly dangerous’ and feel like lemmings thrown down a track

A collective cry went out at the Main Media Centre this morning when video featuring the horrific crash of Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili was broadcast into the hall. The 21-year-old racer died at the Whistler Sliding Centre — following his second crash in just two days.

Ominously, even before the accident, questions about the “exceedingly dangerous,” 1,450-m-long course — the fastest on earth — were being raised. The top speed reached at the track at Fitzsimmon’s Creek, on Blackcomb Mountain is 153.93 km/h. Kumaritashvili was believed to have been travelling at 144.3 km/h.

The track was built by Stantec Architecture Limited, who designed the Salt Lake City bobsleigh, luge and skeleton track in Utah; construction began in 2005 and wrapped up in 2007, when safety testing was begun.The international luge and bobsleigh federations both signed off on the track’s design and safety. But in training runs Thursday, both Guntis Rekis of Latvia and Stefan Hoehner of Germany had high-speed crashes. “My goals are to stay alive, not break bones and catch some good Whistler feeling,” Rekis told reporters. “I was scared a bit.”

“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.”“I’ve never slid that fast,” Maya Pedersen told Maclean’s at a World Cup event in February. “It’s a very difficult track,” said the 36-year-old, who won women’s skeleton gold for Switzerland at the 2006 Games.

Canada may not only face criticism about the safety of the track. Questions will likely also be raised about Canada’s aggressive pursuit of the home ice advantage in Vancouver and Whistler.

Earlier this week, Andy Schmid, the performance director of British Skeleton called the Canadian decision to limit practice time for overseas competitors (compared to the more than 300 runs set aside for Canadian athletes) as irresponsible. “Please, let there be no accidents there because that could kill the sport,” he told Britain’s Telegraph.

“People have the argument that it’s just home advantage and that’s normal for an Olympic host country, but it’s different for sports involving high speed. Can you imagine in Formula One nobody being allowed on a track because somebody has home advantage?”

Kumaritashvili’s death marks a terrible start to the Vancouver Olympics. No one yet knows how the crash will affect tonight’s Opening Ceremonies at BC Place, or the luge event, set to begin Saturday, with the men’s singles. Luge training at Whistler has been suspended.

I love the Australians comment that "they are just lemmings thrown down a track. It's their lives!"
Guess the sport wasn't dangerous before these olympics.

 

[Reds-16]

Definately one of the worst sports accidents i've ever seen. I actually gasped when I saw it. Don't want to see it again.

 

[Yoda]

Reds-16, don't look at this article then. There's some pretty graphic images in it.

Luge

 

[bergamascho]

Echoing what has already been said....This dampens opening celebrations considerably. It was HORRIFFIC to see and I can't believe there were exposed pillars like that in the first place. Unacceptable...simply unacceptable. FFS fix this track...

 

[italian_stallion21]

You have stuff coming from everywhere now, the track is too dangerous, the luger shouldn't have lifted his head (no idea, but apparently that's important?), how can they possibly come out of this? What are the other lugers going to be like going down that track when they open it? Is it possible to actually change the track at this point? Tragic

 

[cascadesoccer]

The Georgian team may even go home after this event. How can you blame them really, as much as you wanna participate on the biggest stage, I wouldn't blame them a bit if they were to choose to go home.