Quote: Originally posted by jon_r on 29 March 2005
We were about the 5th car on the scene, with Mr Waddle in the car behind us. A 911 had hit the barriers and flipped. It had then slid 100 metres or so down the tarmac on its roof and come to rest by the side of the track.
The guy regained conciousness after 20 minutes, but he had a drip put in etc and got airlifted to hospital.
We parked up on the track whilst the police, ambulances etc turned up nd treated him. The helecopter then landed on the track.
It was a really bad time watching all this happening, but the spirit of everybody and the atmosphere of the place made it very surreal.
I hope the guy is going to be alright, they seemed to think he would make it.
Just been reading on that other site about the crash, sounds very nasty but so glad he is recovering :
Out for a sighting lap, we came into the approach to Miss-Hit-Miss (Drei Rechts) to find a Dutch 911 on its roof and a motionless driver on the road with someone next to him.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, we are well-rehearsed at this. I grabbed the first-aid kit and ran to the driver, while Birgit grabbed the flag and ran back up the track.
Things looked very bad at first. The driver was not responsive, had wet himself (often a sign of a broken back) and his pupils were not contracting when I shone a pocket torch into his eyes. His pulse was very weak.
There was nothing I could do for him beyond supporting his head, to keep it in line with his spine, and monitoring his breathing. I checked that someone had called the office, and a German driver confirmed that he had.
Esther arrived in a few minutes. I later learned this was the first time she had come across an accident on the Ring, which you wouldnt have suspected as she was very calm, asking what she could do to help. I asked her to call the office again to ensure that a helicopter had been requested, not just an ambulance, and after doing that she spoke to the driver in Dutch to reassure him in case he could hear her.
Fabian arrived shortly afterwards. He again checked the drivers pupils. It turned out that Fabian knew the driver, Erwin. The three of us did what we could to keep him safe until the professionals arrived.
The paramedic car arrived first, followed shortly by the ambulance. Fabian briefed the paramedics on the story so far. Once they started doing their stuff, there was nothing further for me to do, so I backed off a bit.
A marshall was asking about the owner of a blue Porsche that was apparently parked further down the track where they wanted to land the helicopter. There was no response from anyone there, so I said I would run down and see whether the keys were in the car. It turned out to be the other K-reg blue 968 (driven by another Matt, I think), and the keys were in it, so I moved it a few hundred metres down the track.
As ever, the skill of the helicopter pilot in landing in such a narrow space, with perhaps three feet clearance between the rotor tips and the trees on one side and the bank on the other, was incredibly impressive to watch.
I learned from Fabian that the driver was now in much better condition than first appeared. He was conscious, able to move all his limbs and able to tell the medics his wifes phone number. This was very cheery news given first appearances.
Before he was taken to Koblenz, he was apparently asking Fabian to ensure that someone had photos as he wanted to see the condition of the car. I took this as a good sign.
Id taken a few which Ill email to him via Fabian. The good news was confirmed later - more of that at the end.
The state of the car was a very good advertisement for rollcages. I seriously doubt that a passenger would have survived, and it was only the drivers good fortune that it was the passenger side that was crushed.
The paramedics and doctors spent a fair time working on the driver in the back of the ambulance, so we probably spent another 40 mins or so there with nothing much to do except chat.
Paskal from ring-world.nl came and introduced himself. Apparently he was due to get a paxlap in the 911 on the next lap. Since the roof of the car was very crushed indeed on the passenger side, he was feeling rather lucky. One of the Brit bikers suggested that he should go immediately to buy a lottery ticket!
One of the marshalls at the scene also came to ask how I was - he had apparently been at my crash too. I told him I was fine. He said it looked from the damage like it was a big crash. I said I thought about 80kph. He said "At least, I think". I guess he has seen a fair number of wrecks.
There was a lot of glass on the track. Fabian had grabbed a brush and was helping to sweep. I found another brush and joined in. Its surprisingly hot work! I asked Fabian who we should invoice for our sweeping services.
Wed been trying to reconstruct the accident. The bit that was obvious was that the car had hit the armco hard on the outside of the right-hand bend of the left-right before Miss-Hit-Miss, and then had either rolled or (more likely) slid on its roof to its resting place against the kerb at the first Miss of MHM. However, there was also dirt on the right, just before the armco, so it looked like hed hit there first.
However, Stelvio later told me the dirt was already there when he came through just before the crash. So it looks like someone went off on the right, dragged dirt onto the track and then made a run for it. The 911 then probably skidded on the dirt. This theory really underlines the utter stupidity and selfishness of driving off after a crash.
Once the helicopter took off, the marshalls got everyone moving. I had parked in a good place from a track safety perspective, and a very bad place from a bump-starting perspective. So a few volunteers were enlisted to push me backwards away from the track edge so that I could then run downhill and start the car.
Everyone was driving very sedately as we made our way back around the track.
I learned from Birgit that Bad Dragon had arrived close to where she was flagging, and was making sure that people left a clear route through the cars for the ambulance.
Birgit was feeling a little uncertain about going out for another lap, but decided to do one with Matt in the BMW 1er. I was going to do one in the GCar with Jochen, but the harness straps were too long even when fully-tightened at the front, and we couldnt see how to tighten them at the rear, so I went out for a couple of laps in the 944 instead.
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