Tony Stewart hit fellow driver with his car while he was walking on the track

[blindzebra]

Death!?
Are you freaking kidding me!!
Bad choice by tne 20yeR old
But you are the worlds biggest moron if you think HE DESERVED TO LOSE HIS LIFE.
Come on BZ,you're better than that

Btw, I don't fault Tony Stewert here.

He was not dead when I wrote this.

 

[Fritsch_the_cat]

So much disinformation going on after this I don't know where to start. Understandable I suppose since most haven't the first clue about racing and in particular sprint cars. For one thing, there is ALWAYS an investigation after a death. I once sat at Devils Bowl after someone in the pits was killed for around 5 hours waiting on a coroners inquiry to be conducted. So that is nothing unusual. Sprint cars do not steer like normal cars, even normal race cars. I'll let someone who drives sprint cars explain

You can see Ward ran in front of the car proceeding Stewart before frogging his way back out of the way, and then making another go at it directly into the path of Stewart. These cars operate at and default to a sideways stance and driving them straight under yellows is quite unnatural and gives you practically no maneuverability. The only way to really get it to turn is to punch the throttle which you see him do.

Just to supplement my post, under yellows like that there is very little ability to take avoiding action. He can move maybe 1 metre off line in every 10 he moves forwards. The only way to increase this turn angle is to get the car sideways and the only way to do it quickly is to punch the throttle.

Unfortunately by the time he had processed everything and made that decision to attempt an avoiding action, it was too late and he probably ended up making it worse than if he had held it straight and ran him down head on at a slower speed.

That said, I'm not even convinced that it is Stewart we hear blip the throttle. The video we see was taken by someone sitting in the stands, I don't see how it would have recorded the sound of Stewart's engine from that distance. I think that might be a car on the front straight we hear.

Here is a screengrab from facebook from someone who works on the 45 car seen in the video that barely missed Ward right before Stewart hit him.

 

[BoysFan4ever]

This would have never happened if he had stayed in his car. It's simple. Someone else posted that is what drivers are told.

He just made an awful mistake. That's what makes it so sad.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Racing accident caused by a driver who didn't use very good judgement. Nothing criminal just a sad story that could have been prevented. Hopefully other drivers will hear of this and be better informed and not make a similiar mistake.

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

The headlines when this first came out made it sound like there was some sort of fight and he ran him over in cold blood.

Watching that video and reading about it from people who actually know what the hell goes on when you're driving a sprint car, I have no doubt that it was accidental and just a TERRIBLE judgement call on the part of Ward. The thing is, he not only ended his own life and caused terrible heartache for his family and friends, he also gave something that Tony Stewart is going to think about just about every single night before he goes to sleep.

 

[CowboyDan]

I'm really anxious to hear what Dave Despain has to say. I value his opinion on most things motorsports.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

This should make Racing put very hefty fines on leaving your vehicle during a wreck and going toward other cars.

Personally it looked to me like Stewart meant to scare him ....... and the guy was killed.

Senseless tragedy and I have a feeling that Stewart will lose a very expensive civil lawsuit from it.

It should do more then that IMO. It should be a very lengthy suspension from the sport. Motor Sport Racing should make a unified decision here and basically say that if a driver does this, it's a 5 year ban from any sanctioned race in any class of racing period. This has been coming for a very long time. It's stupid luck that more of this has not been seen. The sport, quit literally spends billions of dollars trying to make the sport safer by developing very safe cars that protect the drivers under extremely hazardous conditions. Why do they do this? They do this because the drivers are the stars of the sport and not the cars. They do this because dying on the track doesn't bring in huge money. Why the sport would allow a driver to do this kind of dangerous thing is beyond me. The only way to curb this type of behavior is to take racing away from the driver. Drivers value that above all else. You take that away and all of this stops.

 

[CowboyDan]

That said, I'm not even convinced that it is Stewart we hear blip the throttle. The video we see was taken by someone sitting in the stands, I don't see how it would have recorded the sound of Stewart's engine from that distance. I think that might be a car on the front straight we hear.

This is such a strong point.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Seriously, never meet a sprint car driver that wasn't a little crazy and quick to get hot under the collar. It's kind of who and what they are. I'd guess that Ward was the same. Heck, how many laid back, easy going Race Car Drivers in any kind of racing have you ever meet?

Bad decision on the part of Ward for sure and he paid the ultimate price. I, personally, don't believe that Stewart wanted to hit him but at the end of the day, there is no way that proof of intent can ever be established here. Just too may factors in play. We don't know what Stewart's visibility was at the time. We don't know if he was paying more attention to the car in front of him and simply didn't see Ward. Heck, we can't even be sure how clear his visor was at the time of the accident. It's dirt track racing people. You ever raced on dirt? You don't stay clean unless you're sitting behind the wall. Lastly, while the drivers were under caution and speed was reduced (I think it was reported that speeds under caution where at about 35 MPH), take your own automobile out and try and pick up a pedestrian, while driving in traffic, while you are driving normally at 35 MPH. Never mind the dirt track conditions, just see what you can pick up and how quickly you are able to pick up what a pedestrian is doing at that rate of speed. Then try and do it while you are turning a corner.

This is a really unfortunate set of events here and the results are terrible. I hate Stewart, don't even like him a little bit but, like many here have said, Ward should never have exited his vehicle. The moment he exited his car, the responsibility of the entire event was his. That's a bit cold, I'm sure, but that's the truth of it. I don't even think that the family, if they elected to try and do so, could win a civil case on this. The responsibility is all on Ward, rightly or wrongly. That's why you never get out of your car unless fire is immediately threatening you.

 

[CowboyDan]

I'd be surprised if his family files a lawsuit. They're a racing family. He's been in a car since he was 15.

 

[CowboyDan]

What The F*** Facts ‏@WhatTheFFacts now
Tony Stewart's charity helps to raise funds for "drivers injured in motorsports activities"

 

[viman96]

IMO Stewart's history will play a major role in how this moves forward. He has been such a hot head and has physically attacked people that it cannot be overlooked.

 

[CowboyDan]

IMO Stewart's history will play a major role in how this moves forward. He has been such a hot head and has physically attacked people that it cannot be overlooked.

No question that his past actions and attitude attribute to the bad press he's getting. If this were Jeff Gordon, things would be different. But Smoke brought that on himself. That's just life......if you act a certain way, you get treated a certain way. I think he can handle that part of it though.

 

[Future]

If that's the case he should ABSOLUTELY be tried for vehicular manslaughter because that is the law. If some idiot comes down the middle of the street and I decided to rev my engine to intimidate him and I hit him and kill him...I'm likely to be tried and convicted for manslaughter. That is just what is going to happen. That person may have been idiotic, but the DA would view it as something that could have been prevented.

YR

Yea but the DA isn't going to be an expert on racing, so something with experience will have to be the one to determine whether or not there was anything Tony could do. My guess - having watched these cars a bunch of times - Tony was accelerating to swerve around the kid, rather than hit the brakes and skid into him. The wheels are pointed up the hill, making it look like he was turning right and directly into Ward. But with those cars, turning the wheels right and hitting the gas would cause the back end to swerve to the left - around the kid. I think that's what an expert is going to say, and we're going to find that Stewart is innocent of any wrongdoing. His reputation is going to hurt him, but in this case, I don't think he really did anything wrong.

And not for nothing, but I'm from Canandaigua and this track is like a mile from my parents' house. I've been there plenty of times and can tell you that, especially in that corner with the kid wearing all black, it would not surprise me one bit that Tony never saw him until it was too late. These cars are going way faster than 20 mph, especially if Tony was trying to catch up to the pack - which is completely legal in racing. He might have been going 60 mph when he first saw the kid, that's more than enough to kill somebody.

 

[CowboyDan]

The lighting at that track looks pretty low..............like most dirt ovals in the US.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Yea but the DA isn't going to be an expert on racing, so something with experience will have to be the one to determine whether or not there was anything Tony could do. My guess - having watched these cars a bunch of times - Tony was accelerating to swerve around the kid, rather than hit the brakes and skid into him. The wheels are pointed up the hill, making it look like he was turning right and directly into Ward. But with those cars, turning the wheels right and hitting the gas would cause the back end to swerve to the left - around the kid. I think that's what an expert is going to say, and we're going to find that Stewart is innocent of any wrongdoing. His reputation is going to hurt him, but in this case, I don't think he really did anything wrong.

And not for nothing, but I'm from Canandaigua and this track is like a mile from my parents' house. I've been there plenty of times and can tell you that, especially in that corner with the kid wearing all black, it would not surprise me one bit that Tony never saw him until it was too late. These cars are going way faster than 20 mph, especially if Tony was trying to catch up to the pack - which is completely legal in racing. He might have been going 60 mph when he first saw the kid, that's more than enough to kill somebody.

Sometimes experience works the other way. The DA may not have any experience with racing and then jumps to the conclusion that Stewart should be arrested.

I saw the video. I am not an expert by any means. I thought it was hard to tell what was what in that video.





YR

 

[CowboyDan]

Sometimes experience works the other way. The DA may not have any experience with racing and then jumps to the conclusion that Stewart should be arrested.

I saw the video. I am not an expert by any means. I thought it was hard to tell what was what in that video.





YR

Do you admit that the kid almost got hit by 2 cars, before ultimately being hit by Stewart's car?

 

[Bill Wooten]

Sometimes experience works the other way. The DA may not have any experience with racing and then jumps to the conclusion that Stewart should be arrested.

I saw the video. I am not an expert by any means. I thought it was hard to tell what was what in that video.





YR

I thought I saw a report yesterday stating that experts were being brought in to evaluate all the aspects of the accident. They would be advising the DA as well as making recommendations for safety precautions to prevent this in the future.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I thought I saw a report yesterday stating that experts were being brought in to evaluate all the aspects of the accident. They would be advising the DA as well as making recommendations for safety precautions to prevent this in the future.

The DA is an elected politician.

If there is enough pressure demanding that Stewart be prosecuted, many DA's will do just that because they want to be re-elected. And many of the DA's that succumb to the pressure will find an expert that fits the agenda of prosecuting.

There are also DA's that will not bow to pressure, but it depends on what DA you come across.

Anybody thinking that Stewart being prosecuted could *never* happen really doesn't understand the law or the justice system.






YR

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Do you admit that the kid almost got hit by 2 cars, before ultimately being hit by Stewart's car?

What does that have to do with anything?

They didn't hit him. Stewart did.

In fact, that could work against Stewart because the DA could always point out that other cars were able to avoid Ward but Stewart did not.





YR