Death at a sporting event is particularly shocking because it is largely unforeseeable and the general mood is usually joyous. But when a sporting event results in four dead and two injured, it is tragic. The tragedy is compounded when it is an unsuspecting spectator who just came out to have some fun.
The incident at High Performance Racing’s (HPR) event in Rawalpindi’s Bahria Town on Sunday, December 5, which occurred when car number 707 swerved off the road and crashed into on-looking spectators, puts a question mark on the ability of the organisers to host such events. It is likely to have far-reaching detrimental effects on drag racing being accepted as a proper sport in Pakistan.
Racing is risky – and occasionally dangerous – business.
Competitors who choose to test the limits of their race cars, motorcycles or other vehicles understand those risks. But what about the spectator who came to enjoy a day of high-speed thrills?
Drag-strip deaths bring safety into the spotlight.
I have yet to hear this headline after the Bahria Town accident. Even in the developed world, after their strict guidelines for spectator safety, fatalities have occurred on National Hot Rod Association (governing body for events in the USA and Canada) events that have left organisers helpless.
For example, in the US, a man died and another got injured after he got hit by a flying engine thrown out of a crashed race car while the driver sustained minor injuries. In another incident at a NHRA event in the US (February 2010), a rear wheel snapped off a car. The parts flew beyond the grand stands and struck a woman, who died a few hours later at a local hospital.
How do you predict something like that that and how do you prevent it from happening?
In Pakistan, a drag race event, or any event is successful if everything goes according to the loosely designed plans. Because if it doesn’t, then the spectators who bought tickets (around 11,000 tickets were sold for the Bahria Town event) for the event to view some high-speed thrills will call it an illegal event, as many are calling the HPR race now, and cause an uproar and demand the authorities to act.
This is the second time a drag race event has been organised in Bahria Town, so it is hard to say if the local authorities were unaware of it.
Almost all over the world, it is written at the back of the tickets that ‘motorsports is dangerous’, even the ‘Group B Rally’ which is widely regarded as the founder of this expression where an accident claimed three lives and injured 31 after a car lost control and plunged into the crowd. ‘Group B Rally’ is the favourite motorsport of any true racing aficionado; its cars were faster than the Formula One cars of that time – ask Nigel Mansel if you don’t believe me.
Crowd control! Analysts today argue, if there were stricter crowd control measures in place, Group B may have survived. The spectators at these rallies were completely unpoliced, standing in the middle of the roads and then quickly weaving out of the way as a race car approached, much like a matador during a bullfight. Not too brave, just plain stupid because it tests the reaction time of the drivers and causes them to go out of control many a times. Extremely high speeds did not help either.
In 2009, when the Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab (TDCP) arranged its first drag event in Lahore; we could see an accident coming – as normally, on drag strips, four-feet high concrete walls are erected on both sides of the road throughout the quarter mile.
Spectator stands are placed after the guard rail which is in place at a three-foot distance from those concrete walls/jersey barriers. Spectator stands are not built and spectators are not allowed within half-a-mile radius since the cars are extremely fast after covering that distance and may go airborne.
At the TDCP event, the spectators were allowed where the concrete barriers should have been erected. People were even standing on the road. In the next event, there were some improvements in place, but even that could not have stopped an out-of-control car from ploughing into the crowd.
Fortunately, nothing happened, even the Supra that plunged into the crowd in Bahria town at HPR’s event, raced in the TDCP event. People loved it. But sadly, it was just a matter of sooner rather than later.
At the HPR event, an event supposedly set by international standards, spectators ignored repeated calls from the organisers to stand behind the drain lines that were supposed to act as a buffer between the road and the crowd.
The event organisers at Bahria Town urged the public to abide by the regulations but instead they stood on the road or on the edge of the foot path, and now, as you can see in the pictures, the Supra never crossed the drain lines.
The victims of the crash reportedly sneaked up from behind the mountains overlooking the strip and stood at a point where no spectators were allowed. But the onus to avoid that definitely lies with the organizer.
The left side of the track, which was at least 20-25 feet away from the road, divided by a footpath and drainage was the only place where spectators were allowed. Warnings were given out several times and often times the races were stopped due to people inching too close to the danger area.
There were a total of 650 guards (150 of Bahria Town and 400 were private) on site to handle the crowd. Also present at the event were ambulances, the Punjab Police, a fire brigade and the Bahria Town management.
So it is amazing to hear the statements by police officials that organisers had not received permission to conduct the event. What were officials of those authorities doing there? Did they not have the right to stop the event?
This country is a hub of rumors. Some reports say the family of the deceased have forgiven Majid Naeem, driver of the Supra and a senior manager at a national telecom giant.
But on the other hand, the main organiser, Atif Sheikh, as well as Majid Naeem have an FIR registered against them, along with two others.
Banning racing in Pakistan is not the answer. People will continue to do so on public roads endangering everyone’s’ lives. In this case we have two examples, Japan and Saudi Arabia. Japan cured its drifting menace from public roads by accepting drifting as a proper event and introduced Drifting Series. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia decided not to and people still drift on the roads resulting in frequent fatal accidents.
Even with concrete walls or jersey barriers, fatalities or freak accidents occur. Even if one tries to be extra careful and writes a 180-page rulebook, you cannot possibly pencil in every scenario. You just cannot.
Baber Khan is an automotive enthusiast working as assistant editor at Pakistan’s leading automotive fraternity PakWheels.com
