Our condolences to everyone involved. But looking at the web today, I started wondering...
It's a horrible and tragic event that took place but could it have been avoided? Is anyone really to blame for this? Can you blame someone for...
- The weather?
- Wanting the race to go as long as possible?
- For not hearing the warnings?
Or do we just take personal responsibility for one's own safety?
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Yesterday the race was rain delayed and it got off approximately 90 minutes late. Weather was coming just past the halfway mark. This weather had been predicted all week. (Though whether people believe weathermen or not is an entirely different perspective.)
Fans could see that weather was coming. And yet folks seem to want to hold someone else responsible for what happened.
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Today fans were calling in to the SiriusXM NASCAR radio station (ch 90) saying no one made a warning announcement. But then several fans did call in saying that they heard the warning announcements from the track. Allegedly people were urged by the track, to take cover. But before or during the warnings, even though broadcasters around the track were busy with their own things and didn't hear the warnings, they all saw it coming and evacuated their stations around the track.
What is one to do?
Weather, is weather and it's one of the more unpredictable beasts around. NASCAR could have halted the race early to be safe. But had they done that, and the weather never materialized at the track location, fans would have been in an uproar. And how early is early? People would probably still been in the parking lot when the lightning hit? Or would they have been?
NASCAR waited until the track found itself being hit by rain, then they called it. The track itself, from the sounds of things, did all they could do, short of hiring Thor, the god of thunder, to come and redirect the power of the storm. And we all go to sporting events and we take the responsibility in our hands each time we do go.
And yet, like today, we always want someone else to look out for us, as if we can't do it for ourselves.
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The lightning hit out in the parking lot... the equivalent of an open field. And if you recall, being out in the middle of an open field is the worse place to be in a lightning storm. Maybe some folks know this and maybe some don't. I won't put that on any person.
What happened to those 10 fans in the parking lot is a horrible act of nature. I don't think anyone could have done anything differently.
That includes NASCAR, Pocono Raceway or anyone.
We all take our educated guesses what will work best for us. Or sometimes, it's called chances. I can't tell you how many times I've walked out into severe storms to do one thing, thinking (or not thinking) nothing will happen to me.
It's really a stupid thought, thinking nothing will happen to me. Just because it hasn't doesn't mean it won't. I can get too comfortable and make a stupid decision which will change everything. Right now, I'm in a sling because a woman did something that none of the other thousands of other cars I pass or pass me in traffic did, and that's hit me on my bicycle, despite the fact that by all odds, she should have seen me at her front right fender at the stop light. Yet the blind old bat still ran me over.
I've put thousands of miles on my bicycle and I've been hit twice (where personal body damage was done) and have had about half a dozen close calls. S*! happens and to not take some form of responsibility for any of it is silly. To me. Sure, maybe the close call head-on wasn't my fault, where I was up against the RIGHT curb... there are some extenuating circumstances, but in most situations, it does take two to tango.
All we can do is just go from here and everyone needs to learn from it.
Maybe tracks install those old air-raid sirens to warn fans about inclement weather? Maybe people pay closer attention to the silly things that might not happen to them? Who knows, but do know... NASCAR and all the tracks in the circuit took note.
And I think the air-raid sirens isn't a bad idea. There would be no mistaking that warning. Then no one would have an excuse. And the finger pointing can take a rest until the next green flag restart penalty.
Good article, Bruce. I would agree whole-heartedly with your point of view.
ReplyDeleteWe as humans, must take responsibility for our own actions. Having spent about 20 years in the South, Atlanta, and the Mid-West, Denver, I am well aware of just how quickly the weather can change.
It was such a tragedy at Pocono, however controlling the weather is impossible. it is incumbent upon ourselves to make good decisions for our own safety.
As quickly as that storm rolled into the racing facility, it was nearly impossible to rush into safe spot, away from the impending danger.
So what is the answer?
Again, I say that we must take ownership for our own safety. We have all taken some unnecessary chances in our life, and gotten away without damages. However, Sunday at Pocono that was not the case.
NASCAR nor the race track, in my opinion, stand to be liable. This was "an act of God" that we have no control over.
My condolences to those that were affected by this tragic event.