There were two drivers killed during his career, and they were on the same weekend twenty years ago (RIP Senna). F1 has become remarkably safer over the years.
I'm not going to join the irony debate though because that's too pedantic even for me.
Safer than the early 90's definitely, but not safer the skiing.
Relevant to Schumy, anything saying he might be in a vegetative state for a long period of time is pure speculation. Hasn't been any official updates in weeks, and at that time he was said to be stable and no longer critical.
Quote:
In the first statement since Schumacher’s wife, Corinna, appealed for the family to be left in peace on Jan. 7, Kehm repeated that “any information regarding Michael’s health not coming from the doctors treating him or from his management must be treated as pure speculation.”
Doctors treating Schumacher in Grenoble have not commented on his condition since Jan. 6.
There were two drivers killed during his career, and they were on the same weekend twenty years ago (RIP Senna & Ratzenberger). F1 has become remarkably safer over the years.
I'm not going to join the irony debate though because that's too pedantic even for me.
Fixed your post.
The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to cam_wmh For This Useful Post:
there were only two deaths in F1 over the past 20 years.....i don't follow F1 closely, but that stat stuns me.......do you have any data for NASCAR or Indy car?
__________________
If I do not come back avenge my death
F1 used to be extremely dangerous. During Jackie Stewart's career (60s/70s), he lost 57 colleagues. Dying was part of the equation....he claims 2 out of 3 died if they lasted 5 years.
These days however, the amount of safety built into the cars is pretty staggering. The last death in F1 was 1994. That's pretty much 20 years ago, which is amazing considering how fast these guys are going. I'm not sure what the death rate is at the highest level of skiing, but I definitely remember at least a few deaths during that time.
In both sports you are going fast and there's potential for danger. At least in one of them you have a protective cage around you when something goes wrong.
/\ Plus the tracks themselves have gotten a lot safer as well. Gravel run off, safety walls and safer course design.
Yep, good point.
The downside, from an entertainment standpoint, is that it's also made the tracks a little more vanilla and the results a little more expected. Nobody likes to see people die...but it would be foolish to deny that the danger element is partly what makes motor sports exciting.
I mentioned two deaths - Senna and that other guy - but we can add Maria de Villota to the list of casualties. She crashed in testing and died later in the year, most likely because of her injuries.
I mentioned two deaths - Senna and that other guy - but we can add Maria de Villota to the list of casualties. She crashed in testing and died later in the year, most likely because of her injuries.
true, but that was a freak accident during test drives ... not even on a circuit. She crashed into the loading ramp of a team truck, I believe ...
F1 is incredibly safe these days. Really all you have to know about the safety standards there is that Robert Kubica walked away from this accident with a light ankle bruise:
1994 was a horrible year for the F1 ... especially the Imola weekend:
- Ratzenberger and Senna died in accidents
- several spectators were injured from flying debris when Lamy and Lehto crashed
- several mechanics were injured when Alboreto lost a wheel in the pit lane
also Wendlinger crashed heavily in Monaco, he was in a coma for some time ... F1 needed some changes badly and luckily they were serious about it.
I'm not sure what the death rate is at the highest level of skiing, but I definitely remember at least a few deaths during that time.
Kind of a tough comparison, but I can think of about a half dozen skiers that have died since 06. Mind you that's not always specifically during skiing. Some include the activities surrounding it (mountaineering/hiking into runs, etc.) As far as during actual competition the numbers are less. 2 come to mind, but I don't follow comps that closely so there may be more.
7 deaths in Indy since 1994. The two biggest ones there were Canadian Greg Moore in 1999 and then Dan Wheldon in 2011.
7 Deaths from 1994 to 2001 in the top three tiers of Nascar racing. Most notable there, Dale Earnhardt, Adam Petty (Kyle Petty's son) and Kenny Irwin JR.
Losing Greg Moore sucked as a racing fan back then. He was going to jump over to F1 after that season.
there were only two deaths in F1 over the past 20 years.....i don't follow F1 closely, but that stat stuns me.......do you have any data for NASCAR or Indy car?
1996
Indy car Scott Brayton (Indy 500 Oval) & Jeff Krosnoff (toronto Road Course)
1997 Nascar (truck) John Nemechek (homstead Miami Oval)
1999 Cart Gonzalo Rodriguez (Laguna Seca Road Course) and Greg Moore (fontana cali Oval)
2000 Nascar Adam Petty (son of Kyle and grandson of Richard) (Loudon NH Oval)
Nascar Kenny Irwin Also at Loudon NH 8 weeks after Petty
Nascar Truck Tony Roper (texas oval)
2001 Nascar Dale Earnhardt (Daytona Oval)
apparently there has been over 230 deaths since 2001
Dan Wheldon Died a few years ago in a freak accident too.
I love auto racing, if you haven't been in a race car before you have no idea how amazingly fun it is. I'm being dead serious about having it be as fun as having sex. TBQH Wheldon didn't feel a thing, then you got guys like Felipe Massa getting hit in the head with a spring at speed crushing his skull and he comes back.
__________________
Thank you for everything CP. Good memories and thankful for everything that has been done to help me out. I will no longer take part on these boards. Take care, Go Flames Go.
Most racing deaths these days seems to be dirt track sprint cars.
Drag racing too, hard to get a car that goes 0-300+ MPH and back down to 30MPH in 5 seconds
__________________
Thank you for everything CP. Good memories and thankful for everything that has been done to help me out. I will no longer take part on these boards. Take care, Go Flames Go.
Drag racing too, hard to get a car that goes 0-300+ MPH and back down to 30MPH in 5 seconds
And even the NHRA has made strides in driver safety over the years. Granted there isn't too much you can do to those cars to improve driver safety but they've also toned down the death ratio quite a bit.
Open wheel dirt track racing there's always going to be that factor. It's where pro's and absolutely reckless crap drivers meet. something always happens in those.
Nascar has done wonders to the cars safety. I remember in the last couple of years there was a wreck where Ryan Newman or Danica Patrick drove right into the inside wall so hard the engine flew out. Driver walked away. Thats insane.
They still need to improve the fan safety aspect though. The Talladega or Daytona accident on the front straight where Carl Edwards car caught flight was scary as all hell.
Nascar has done wonders to the cars safety. I remember in the last couple of years there was a wreck where Ryan Newman or Danica Patrick drove right into the inside wall so hard the engine flew out. Driver walked away. Thats insane.
They still need to improve the fan safety aspect though. The Talladega or Daytona accident on the front straight where Carl Edwards car caught flight was scary as all hell.
That was Dega, I was at that race.
__________________
Thank you for everything CP. Good memories and thankful for everything that has been done to help me out. I will no longer take part on these boards. Take care, Go Flames Go.
/\ Plus the tracks themselves have gotten a lot safer as well. Gravel run off, safety walls and safer course design.
I actually believe they're moving away from the gravel run offs on a lot of tracks and replaced with asphalt instead... the reasoning is that with asphalt, there's a better chance that the driver can regain control.
Read an article on BBC today. He's still in an induced coma and is stable. While it seems to be unusual to be in an induced coma this long, it is (of course) better that it is not a natural coma. It is still possible to make a full recovery even after a long induced coma like this (not likely though I'm guessing). They've operated a couple of times to remove clots.
I had a friend that was in a induced coma for about 1.5 months and he had really good recovery, but he is no where near the same person he was before it happened.