NASCAR driver Tony Stewart struck and killed a fellow sprint car driver during a race Saturday night in upstate New York. According to the Associated Press, the driver had climbed from his car and was on the track trying to confront Stewart during a race in Canandaigua, N.Y.
The Ontario County Sheriff's Department later identified the driver as Kevin Ward Jr., who was pronounced dead Saturday night at a Canandaigua hospital. Ward was 20 years old. Stewart was unhurt.
I can't tell if Stewart accelerated into Ward or if Ward stepped too close to Stewart. I hope for Stewart's sake it's the later. You can hear an engine accelerate about the same time as the incident but I can't tell it it is Stewart's. If he is charged, he's going to have a rough trial as the prosecution brings up his track history.
Ward was very stupid. He walked right out in front of the oncoming cars. The driver in front of Stewart nearly hit him first. To me it's obvious Stewart tried to swerve at the last minute.
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“The Government of Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.” - Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez
FlyingPenguin wrote:Ward was very stupid. He walked right out in front of the oncoming cars. The driver in front of Stewart nearly hit him first. To me it's obvious Stewart tried to swerve at the last minute.
After watching the video several more times since I first posted, I agree. I doubt Stewart saw him until it was too late. You can't even blame Tony for the initial incident. Ward shouldn't have been on the outside going into the turn on a dirt track. Those cars always slide up. It sucks for all involved. Hopefully NASCAR will implement a rule that suspends drivers that exit their vehicle during a race when there isn't a fire or imminent danger.
I think it's partly the tracks fault. yellow should have been out no later then 5 seconds after he hit the wall. Dirt tracks have lights all around the track so it should not take a whole lap to slow things down.
[align=center]A self-aware artificial intelligence would suffer from a divide by zero error if it were programmed to be Amish[/align]
