Olympic Luger Thrown From Sled & Hits Steel Pole – Dies (Graphic Video)
Posted by Jim Hoft on Friday, February 12, 2010, 3:51 PM
Olympic luger Nodar Kumaritashvili from Georgia lost control of his sled during training, went over the track wall and struck an unpadded steel pole near the finish line at Whistler Sliding Center.
Here’s the video from CBS, via BreitbartTV;
Watch CBS News Videos Online
So… Why would they have unpadded steel poles right next to a luge track?
ADVERTISEMENT
-
Featured Story:
Horrible… Obama Tells Foolish Supporters: I’m Not Over-Spending… “I’m Running to Pay Down Our Debt”
Published May 23, 2012 at 11:51 pm - 69 Comments
Taqiyyotomist commented:
Jim, the (previous) lack of comments might be due to the fact that we don’t watch these.
Sad? yes, but snuff? also yes.
Leave these to Drudge and who knows where else.
Maybe I’m wrong, and lots of folks are clicking on the play button there. I bet not.
just my 2c.
Carbon Monoxide commented:
For the same reason there were no guardrails between the road and the concrete posts in the underpass where Princess Dianna died.
Andreas K. commented:
It’s rather blurred. Personally I’ve never seen such a crash with a luge. Really a lot of bad luck involved there. The luge seems to hit one side of the track and then he’s catapulted form the luge and right out of the track into the steel pole. I don’t think anyone ever foresaw such an accident on such a piece of the track.
Reminds me a bit of the fatal crash of Ulli Maier in 1994 at the Kandahar downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Nobody had expected such a crash to happen.
You have to remember, whether they are riding a luge or skiing downhill, the only collapsible zone they have is their nose. It’s the risk that comes with the sport. Such athletes are pushing against the limit every day.
Nevertheless tragic.
Andreas K. commented:
Addition: according to the Vancouver 2010 website, there were some other crashes. I quote:
“On Wednesday there were several crashes during women’s luge training runs on a track widely-regarded as one of the most dangerous in the sport.
Romania’s Violeta Stramaturaru crashed and was knocked unconscious for a few minutes and was taken to the hospital.”
JaneLovesJesus commented:
This is horrible!!
I don’t so much think the lack of padding is the problem — at the speeds they are going, padded or no, your not likely to make it. But what about the overall engineering of the track? Should one be able to fly OFF THE TRACK that easily???
This is a hideous loss of life. They better assure that the facilities are appropriate before another athlete is unnecessarily harmed.
Yes, I know they are ‘taking a risk’ by engaging in the sport they have chosen. But please, let’s be sure they have proper facilities.
Neoavatara commented:
Racers have been complaining about this track from the beginning.
God bless this man’s family.
CattusMagnus commented:
May God’s peace be with him and his family.
ptg commented:
Its a dangerous sport. Like many others. They can’t be made safe and its silly to ban them. Some cats just like danger.
jenny commented:
That was not a public highway and considering that, there should have been protections along that run. Dangerous sport of not, it was negligent on the Olympics part not to make sure obvious dangers like that were eliminated.
IMOO A horrible tragedy that could have been avoided. May he rest in peace and condolences to his heartbroken family.
bg commented:
++
oh Dear Lord that’s horrible!!
prayers & sympathy going out to him & his family..
==
Jonathan Gardner commented:
No one forced that man to get into the sled and go down that track. No one pushed him out of control. Really, the entire blame lays with that man. No one promised the man it would be perfectly safe.
Let’s not think like liberals and invent blame where none lay.
A professional player, especially at this level, should know exactly what the dangers are and should choose to participate accordingly. If the players thought the track was dangerous, they could’ve asked the Olympic committee to make necessary adjustments or refused to play at all.
mike commented:
It’s not a video that most people (i hope)would want to see. Prayers for all involved.
Taqiyyotomist commented:
Perhaps we should pad the mountains as well.
Or just the rock parts. So skiiers will be safe.
Taqiyyotomist commented:
I really don’t mean to be callous there, but really….how safe can we, and should we, make “extreme sports”?
I think it’s a legit question.
Tom commented:
I hear what you’re saying, Taqiyyotomist. You could make a motorcycle safer by giving it four wheels and a roof, but then it isn’t really a motorcycle anymore! But in this case, it sure looks like they could have padded those columns or put up a plexiglas wall to keep athletes from flying into them or something of that sort.
Jonathan Gardner, apparently athletes DID have concerns about their safety:
“Bobsledder Steven Holcomb, driver of USA I, nicknamed the course’s 13th curve the “50-50″ curve because of the odds of a crash.”
http://sports.espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2010/luge/columns/story?columnist=bryant_howard&id=4909555
I hope you’ll agree that we expect the organizing committee to provide a safe and fair venue for the athletes to compete. If the venue’s not safe, you can hardly blame the athlete!
Lily commented:
Couldn’t watch it. Poor man.
NorthernX commented:
Ugh. Looks like his sled cracked up. As for the metal posts, padded or not, what happened to that guy is like getting shot out of a cannon into a brick wall. Ghastly tragedy.
Taqiyyotomist commented:
I hear you, Tom, and I concur, in this case.
I see international organizing committees, and the olympics, and I automatically think “U.N.” and “incompetence”. Not to mention “graft” and “corruption”. Monies were probably set aside for padding and plexi walls, and they were probably spent on hookers and booze.
Words are like a Rorschach test with me sometimes.
John Gargano commented:
There should never be poles in such a place. This event should not be allowed to continue. To say this is bad design is an understatement. I believe this is a case of criminal stupidity on the part of the designers. No doubt there was some sort of committee, etc.
Taqiyyotomist commented:
John, like I said. People were probably paid millions of dollars to design and build this one venue, and they probably spent it on similar things to what NOLA spent levee-building money on, like casinos and booze and hookers.
Internationalist unaccountable globetrotter elites getting millions to live lavishly. Doesn’t that sum up the Olympics core? Not the athletes, but the bureaurocracy and the committees and the money-handlers and deciders, and their media counterparts. Its all a big global party.
A tenth was spent on designing and building this place of the dollars spent to do it, mark my words. The rest was used elsewhere, for more fun things.
That’s how we roll now.
nadadhimmi commented:
Any 2nd year engineering student could have designed a safer track. It must be assumed there will be accidents at the highest speeds at the worst places on the track. Multiple, open steel poles near a 90 mph track are tantamount to negligent homicide. Assinine!
jonyjoe101 commented:
Hopefully they do some quick retrofitting on that track. The track is too fast, and they should at least put some chainlink fencing or plexiglass high enough to prevent the sledder from flying off the track.
It’s safer to remain in the smooth track during an accident. Padding on the steel poles wouldn’t have prevent this tragedy.
Brad commented:
May God rest his soul. I’m so sorry I watched that.
Moemo commented:
The area where that took place is for spectator viewing. If this had happened during competition, several spectators could easily been killed as well. I suspect the OC will take measures to ensure something like this is prevented in the future. Look for some kind of protection in the form of plex or other smooth surface material to be installed at this point.
Joanne commented:
It is apparently right at the end of the track where people are suppose to slow down, as far as I understand. The poor fellow made an error and didn’t judge the corner accurately and went out of control. You’d think that at least they would have extremely strong, tight netting that could have prevented him from hitting a pole. Poor kid – I feel for his family……so sad.
Richard L. commented:
Unpadded steel columns. Negligent malfeasance in my book. It would have cost them a couple grand in mat’l and labor to pad them all or put up a mesh of some kind.
Crocodile tears from the boss doesn’t help. Cheap bastards.
tjexcite commented:
At the speeds he was going no padding in the would have saved him and if the was a wall there he still would of hit it.
He came around the curve out of the interned line and was way to high in the curve and then bounced out of the track. No one could have thought of this would happen and even after thousands and thousands of other runs it will never happen again.
Tom commented:
“People were probably paid millions of dollars to design and build this one venue, and they probably spent it on similar things to what NOLA spent levee-building money on, like casinos and booze and hookers.”
Taqiyyotomist, just a reminder — it was the Army Corps of Engineers that was responsible for building and maintaining the levees — and faulted for their poor construction — not the City of New Orleans. A small point, but an important one to those of us with roots not only in New Orleans, but also in the Corps of Engineers.
BHG commented:
Worse – Biden talking about being there as “cool” – yeah, you are at the WINTER Olympics – and it being a “kick”. No mention of the loss of the young man – just rapturesabut his grandaughter being in a photo. Is the man a lout? Impeach Bozama and we’d get SuperBozo!
Guy commented:
Seems to me that at that point in the track, where speeds are at a maximum and coming out of a turn, those posts should be behind a barrier of some sort. At least if you hit it, it would deflect your body back into the run and keep you going downhill, preventing the “sudden stop” that is almost always tragic. My condolences to the family. Let’s hope that,by tomorrow, they will have taken steps to improve the situation …
CJ commented:
May God take care of this man. You should remove this post. This is a private thing that should not be spread around.
Please Gateway Pundit, be a little more respectful.
Steve commented:
No one forced that man to get into the sled and go down that track. No one pushed him out of control. Really, the entire blame lays with that man. No one promised the man it would be perfectly safe.
“Let’s not think like liberals and invent blame where none lay.
A professional player, especially at this level, should know exactly what the dangers are and should choose to participate accordingly. If the players thought the track was dangerous, they could’ve asked the Olympic committee to make necessary adjustments or refused to play at all.”
This makes no sense, obviously the man is not complaining. Im sure he knew the consciousness, thats why its called an accident.
trace_9r commented:
Tragic accident. They could leave the support poles alone if they decided to put side barriers on the track that are higher than just 3 or 4 feet. Come on.
Andreas K. commented:
No, I don’t think it’s negligence. There just has never been a crash like this at such a part of the track before. They didn’t expect it, thus they didn’t pad it. They will now and will check other track for similar issues and correct them.
Sadly it usually takes something unexpected to happen. And sadly sometimes people die.
Take the Titanic, same thing really. The Titanic had the required amount of lifeboats. Required as in required by regulations back then. But when she went down it was soon clear that the required amount was not enough. Since then safety on ships has improved.
Or, there were a couple of fatal crashes in downhill skiing in the 90s. Since then safety for the races has improved.
Or, Formula 1, there were several fatal and near fatal crashes there, most famously Ayerton Senna. Since then safety improved.
The risk remains every time an athlete hops into the cockpit, jumps out of the starter hut or pushes himself into the ice channel.
Who here has ever been in one of those ice channels for bob sled and luge? I’ve been in the one in Tyrol once. I’d never dare to race down that thing with a luge. Or the famous Streif downhill slope in Kitzbühl. The “Mausefalle” (mousetrap) part. On tv it looks usually rather harmless, but when you stand on top of it… holy crap! That there are people skiing down that thing with ~120 km/h… wow, that takes balls.
jbtripp commented:
For all of you who suggest that this is just a tragic accident or that its the athlete’s fault for taking the risk in the first place…
There is danger in speed sport, but there is also a responsibility of the IOC to mitigate that danger through proper safety standards and venue design. Unprotected steel columns in an obvious runoff zone is an egregious oversite. A simple catch fence with flexible standoffs would have deflected the athlete down track where he could have slid and tumbled to a gradual stop, rather than the devastating sudden impact with an immovable object. He would have been bruised and perhaps even broken, but alive.
Dale Earnhardt’s death http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVKLpNK6SqE resulted in Safer Barriers (soft walls) and the HANS (head and neck restraint) in NASCAR, and many other safety innovations in auto racing have nearly eliminated the spectre of death even though crashing is still a staple of the sport.
Hopefully Nodar Kumaritashvili’s death will not be in vain and the Olympics will require safer designs so athletes can explore the limits of their potential with the least possible risk.
IOC – take a lesson from NASCAR before you lose another athlete due to stupidity.
Indy Voter commented:
How tragic, my prayers are with Nodar Kumaritashvili”s family, teammates, coaches and countrymen.
Tyrone Revere commented:
Video with frame-by-frame sequencing of accident:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25360083@N08/4353795918/
Mark commented:
At 90 mph, I’m not sure padding on a pole would help that much.
Tom commented:
Apparently they’re making some changes: building a wall to prevent athletes from flying off the track in the same place, and having the men’s competition start lower on the track. Let’s hope everyone else stays safe!
J in StL commented:
At 100 mph, do you think padded columns would have helped?