28 cars crash during a single accident at a NASCAR event...

[JohnRBaker]

Not sure whether this can be considered an 'Engineering Disaster', but it certainly was spectacular and something that has never happened to this extent before:

NASCAR's biggest crash in history wipes out almost entire field at Talladega

'The Big One' at Talladega Superspeedway made its presence felt during Sunday's YellaWood 500, claiming nearly entire field in a historically large crash.

https://www.the-express.com/sport/motorsport/150835/nascar-biggest-crash-YellaWood-500

An excerpt from the above item:

The YellaWood 500 devolved into chaos after “The Big One” claimed nearly the entire field. The massive crash involved 28 cars, marking the most drivers ever wiped out in a single crash in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series.

With just five laps remaining in the playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway, Brad Keselowski got shoved into the bumper of race-leader Austin Cindric while running in the bottom line. The No. 2 Ford went flying up the track following the bump, collecting a plethora of other cars running behind him.

When the dust had finally settled on the massive crash, a record-breaking 28 drivers were affected - including postseason contenders Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Alex Bowman. Cindric, Michael McDowell and Daniel Hemric, meanwhile, were taken to the infield care center to be assessed for injuries but were soon after released.

When asked to recall what caused the harrowing incident, McDowell told reporters: “I’m not really sure, to be honest with you. I came down the back straightaway and saw one car get turned - I don’t even know what car it was - and everybody just [ran] right into each other. So I didn’t have a whole lot of time to react, I was kind of in the middle of it before it even started

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
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[3DDave]

This is rookie numbers compared to some Cars and Coffee events.

Also, not really going out on a limb here, but I have never seen a single NASCAR driver properly signal their intent to pass. There have been a few doing those brake-check things and they should stop it.

What is great about this, aside from being a very public lesson (that will be ignored by one too many in the stands) in why defensive driving is so important even on closed tracks/private property, is that it appears that only 3 drivers were sufficiently scuffed up to go to the infield hospital and no one was airlifted to a trauma center or even got the wooooo-wooooo ride off the track grounds.

So, say what one will of watching, maybe, between $2.8 M and $28 million dollars in vehicle damage, this isn't too bad an outcome. I'm sure if there were to be some adjustment claims, their very favorite Snap-on tool box was lost in the wreck and should be compensated. Not that this will happen, but imagine some claims adjuster going over all the dash cam footage trying to assign relative blame percentages and how much damage was done by and how much was done to all the cars.

Also, recall with some sadness, the number of drivers who were grievously injured or killed to figure out protections in order to make racing like this a nearly non-injury event regardless of the damage to the vehicles.

Let's not forget this - another driver looking to have a rule named after him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edBmq5QI6kE

How Ross Chastain's The Wall Ride Worked So Well

 

[GregLocock]

Yup, not an engineering disaster at all. The design of the vehicles allowed most drivers to escape entirely unscathed. Well done NASCAR.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[XR250]

I mean, is it any worse than this peloton crash?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh5y1q-MDl0

 

[1503-44]

The intent of Coleseum events were to provide exactly this type of entertainment. Nobody wants to see 50 cars just running round in nice clean circles. Watch a clock with a second hand and see how long you can do it.

--Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[GregLocock]

Really, the Romans were happy with brightly colored metal being bent? I think you'll find blood gore and death were the attractions.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[Alistair_Heaton]

And the. Changevtonthevaverage iq?

 

[Oops409]

Average IQ is coming way down the Learning Curve, and this is not the same effect as production learning curves.

 

[1503-44]

You are right. But there is too much legal liability in that now.

--Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[IRstuff]

"Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing"

Ditto any car crash, presumably; if anything, this would be an "engineering triumph"

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[drawoh]

Ditto any car crash, presumably; if anything, this would be an "engineering triumph"

Have you looked closely at any "stock cars" lately? If those things are stock cars, then I am Taylor Swift. Are there any stock components in those things anymore? Modern "stock cars" meet regulations that turn them into crash sleds.

This has improved safety in stock car racing. I was researching Roman gladiators for a history MeetUp, and I looked into Indy[ ]500 racing safety. Between 1930 to 1960, around a quarter of the competitors eventually were killed in some form of car racing. In my sample, I saw no historical tends. When I separated the top ten qualfiers, the death rate was still around one in four. I have not tried any other racing organizations. Wikipedia has convenient Indy[ ]500 records.

--
JHG