Without seeing the video of what happened I cannot form an opinion on what may have happened.
I have heard it said many times in my life that one of the first rules of racing of any kind is that if your car is disabled by a collision and you are conscious and can exit the vehicle that you get your ass off the track as fast as you can; either to the infield or over the wall. I will not place the blame on Kevin Ward, but he did walk out onto the track and that is just asking for trouble.
Well Tony did not hit him on purpose as that is clear.
This was simply a case of a driver getting out of his car mad and walking down on a track that was not well lighted in a black suit and trying to confront a car wit a right rear tire that was 3 feet wide.
Tony in the video to me look liked he just gunned it to get passed him or if anything to kick the car to the left as the rear of the car goes to the left not right as the reports made it sound.
It was poor judgment on the walking driver and an accident at best.
Note interviews of the accident from people who know the victim all said it was an accident. Wrong place wrong actions at the wrong time.
Note the car ahead of tony also had to avoid the victim too.
This is going to be something the media will has over big time and not really set the facts right. They will try to make this in to a controversial issues when it was nothing but a accident.
I will not blame a victim here as it is pointless but this is the risk you take when you walk into the drive line even under caution at any track. This is why track workers often take mad drivers and haul them away as when they are mad they are not always thinking straight.
[This message has been edited by hyperv6 (edited 08-10-2014).]
Driver was throwing a tantrum and ran out on the track being an idiot. Looks like tony hit the brakes and his ass end slid down the track a bit when he hit the guy.
Well Tony did not hit him on purpose as that is clear. In no way, shape, or form is anything clear at this point. Don't draw conclusions. Tony is not in the frame until he hits the victim, so without another camera angle nothing is clear.
This was simply a case of a driver getting out of his car mad and walking down on a track that was not well lighted in a black suit and trying to confront a car wit a right rear tire that was 3 feet wide.
Tony in the video to me look liked he just gunned it to get passed him or if anything to kick the car to the left as the rear of the car goes to the left not right as the reports made it sound. If Tony were smart he would have used the steering wheel to turn the car, not the throttle.
It was poor judgment on the walking driver and an accident at best.
Note interviews of the accident from people who know the victim all said it was an accident. Wrong place wrong actions at the wrong time. It is being deemed an On-Track Accident as of right now. Pending the investigation Tony could face charges if it is deemed he hit him on purpose. Don't try and make things so cut and dry when they are not.
Note the car ahead of tony also had to avoid the victim too. The car ahead of Tony was the the guy that spun out the victim. Therefore the victim was not mad at that driver and would not try to interfere with him. Tony and the victim had the collision, so therefore the victim was mad at Tony
This is going to be something the media will has over big time and not really set the facts right. They will try to make this in to a controversial issues when it was nothing but a accident. I have not seen any media making this a murder or manslaughter or anything. The only improper reporting I have seen has been right here from you.
I will not blame a victim here as it is pointless but this is the risk you take when you walk into the drive line even under caution at any track. This is why track workers often take mad drivers and haul them away as when they are mad they are not always thinking straight. Your best two sentences. The kid was mad, not thinking clearly. He got in Tony's way. I'm not saying it is all the victim's fault, or that Tony is a murderer, but neither of them should have done what they did.
I can't agree with you at all. I'm not saying that Tony tried to kill that kid, but it is definitely not "clear" as you say that it was an accident.
Yes, the kid, in hindsight, should not have come down on the track. But emotions were high so he did what he did. Tony clearly saw the kid there, so a responsible person would have slowed down or stopped, and made a turn away from him.
Instead, it sounds as though Tony gasses the car, you can hear the rev and tires just before tony's car enters the frame, and his car strikes the kid. It is possible that Tony wanted to scare the kid out of the way, but regardless that was a poor choice, and being 43 years old Tony should be a little smarter and more mature than to do that, especially around a 17 year old kid who, like all teenagers, is not the most logical or mature individual.
[This message has been edited by DKcustoms (edited 08-10-2014).]
Originally posted by DKcustoms: I can't agree with you at all. I'm not saying that Tony tried to kill that kid, but it is definitely not "clear" as you say that it was an accident.
Yes, the kid, in hindsight, should not have come down on the track. But emotions were high so he did what he did. Tony clearly saw the kid there, so a responsible person would have slowed down or stopped, and made a turn away from him.
Instead, it sounds as though Tony gasses the car, you can hear the rev and tires just before tony's car enters the frame, and his car strikes the kid. It is possible that Tony wanted to scare the kid out of the way, but regardless that was a poor choice, and being 43 years old Tony should be a little smarter and more mature than to do that, especially around a 17 year old kid who, like all teenagers, is not the most logical or mature individual.
I didn't say that was fact. I said "it is possible" and '"it sounds as though." Tony saw the kid on the track, that is a fact that he admitted to police.
I did not claim anything is "clear" as Hyper said.
[This message has been edited by DKcustoms (edited 08-10-2014).]
If you watch the video number 14 Stewart runs the kid into the bank, causing the wreck, not intentionally I am sure then the kid, like a kid goes spastic and try's to point at a couple of cars as they pass him then Stewart runs into him. watch 6 seconds into the video and you will see what I am talking about.
The kid should never have gotten out of the car, isn't that a cardinal rule of racing?
Steve
------------------ Technology is great when it works, and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't
You get out of your car if it is on fire or upside down .Other than that , you get out when the marshals tell you to and you only cross the track when the marshals tell you it is safe .The video has been pulled from Utube so I have not seen it , but newspaper reports say the track was under yellow .You do not accelerate under yellow .Mistakes were made by both drivers , but Stewart being one of the most competent drivers on the planet seems to have put a little too much faith in his own abilities .
I wasn't there. I have only seen the same video as eberyone else.
Tony is an experienced driver. He is one of the most elite drivers in the world on pavement and dirt. He knows how the car will behave. Se him turn the car around a few years ago after being backwards on pit road. Watch him dogtrack the car into his pit stall.
Spinning the rear wheels with the wheel cut to the left would kock the rear to the right. As in, into Ward.
While this was not intentional murder, clearly Tony had the intent to kick the rear end out into Ward. What did he expect to happen?
Tony will probably get off legally, but he will have to live with being responsible for the death of Ward resulting from Tony's own actions.
What is your opinion on the incident that happened last night at a dirt track in New York that resulted in the death of a race driver after he was run over by Tony Stewarts race car?
Originally posted by DKcustoms: I can't agree with you at all. I'm not saying that Tony tried to kill that kid, but it is definitely not "clear" as you say that it was an accident.
Yes, the kid, in hindsight, should not have come down on the track. But emotions were high so he did what he did. Tony clearly saw the kid there, so a responsible person would have slowed down or stopped, and made a turn away from him.
Instead, it sounds as though Tony gasses the car, you can hear the rev and tires just before tony's car enters the frame, and his car strikes the kid. It is possible that Tony wanted to scare the kid out of the way, but regardless that was a poor choice, and being 43 years old Tony should be a little smarter and more mature than to do that, especially around a 17 year old kid who, like all teenagers, is not the most logical or mature individual.
The police deemed it an on track accident and posted no charges. They will let the prosecutor take a look at it and see if he finds anything more that would change their ruling. It is very matter of fact to this point.
If you look at the seconds 34-36 as Tony hits the gas the wheels rear of the car makes a hard left and the front wheels are turned to the right as the driver is struck by the left rear tire. If you have ever been in a sprint car you would know that even if a driver gets close and missed the right front the left rear will still eat you up. Most drivers have enough sense of awareness that if the kid was that close the odds were good if you would hit him if you do not turn the wheel to the right and hit the throttle.
If you would not if you were going to toss dirt on him Tony would have turned left and it the throttle to kick the rear end out. only after you get the rear out do you counter steer to he right to maintain the slip angle of the slide under full wheel slippage. There was no over steer to the right and there was no continued throttle to dust him.
From being around sprint races to me it appears that Tony goosed it to the left with the wheel turned to the right to try to not hit the kid as to me he just walked right into the path of the tire. All that kid had on his mind was to get at Tony in the cockpit and never considered the rear tire sticking out there. It is not unlike someone walking into a propeller on an air plane. A mistake but a fatal one at that.
After really looking at the details of this and unless anything else is uncovered I believe they will find Tony tired to get the car to swing to the left as not to hit the kid. As of now there is nothing to show that he tried to over steer the rear to the right as the wheel was going left not right as to induce the overs steer needed to dust him.
As for speed the police estimated the car was 25 MPH to 30 MPH and was at a normal if not slower pace than normal for the track. You can not just stop these cars as one you will get rear ended and two they have an in or out transmission.
We just had locally a woman who walked in front of a Semi here this week to kill herself .The driver tired to miss here but still hit here. It was an unfortunate accident and from what I see here this was no different. The kid did not intend on killing him self but for intents it pretty much is what he did. Young mad and poor judgment will bit you ever time.
As I have said if this was anyone but Tony we would never have heard of this and most would have seen it as kid doing something stupid that cost him his life.
Now if you want near criminal assault look up the crashes and fights at Bowman Grey Stadium in Winston Salem. Burt Myers and several other drivers have gotten this season to the point that they have started taking out each other and then taking their cars and chasing each other in the infield as the track officials try to get out of the way. They then ram each other over and over in a full on assault. Then in the winners circle a wife or female friend punches the winner in the gut. Now there is clear intent and if they do not stop it they will have a death of a driver or if one of the cars gets in the stand spectator death. I love the racing there but it is time to stop the foolishness.
the bottom line is like Tony or not I can not see anything conclusive to bring charges and based on the car movements and the wheel angle it appears that he may have been trying to move the rear of the car away from the driver and not into him.
In the end unless there is some admission from Tony other wise I suspect there will be no charges.
Remember innocent till proven guilty and to this point there is nothing here to prove any guilt. Even the police at this point found no grounds for charges unless the prosecutor can dig something up that they could not.
In the end this will just be an unfortunate accident and hopefully other drivers will learn to keep in the car and away from the cars on the track.
I saw years ago a driver just crossing a track and was hit at speed with similar results. Getting out of a crash or mad can make you over look the obvious things and on a track they can kill you if you choose wrong.
[This message has been edited by hyperv6 (edited 08-10-2014).]
