June 10, 2007

Massive Accident in Montreal

Robert Kubica of BMW was just involved in a massive accident during the Canadian Grand Prix. He went off the road at full speed and collided with a concrete barrier, shattering his car.

He was obviously unconcious when the car came to a halt on it's side... or what was left of it's side.

This was far and away the worst accident I've seen as a F1 watcher (though the Rubens Barrichello accident in 1994 may have been worse), and I fear desperately for the health of Kubica.

Stay tuned for updates as they become available.

UPDATE, JUST A MOMENT LATER: It's telling, I think, that the FIA has refused to show the work being done on Kubica. Since the accident occurred, we've not seen one shot of the car's resting place. That's scaring me more than anything, I think.

The Accident.

UPDATE 102pm: Smarmy Windsor reports that a FIA member told him that Kubica is "stable". Windsor would say that, though, being a shill for FIA. I trust him as far as I can spit a rat, so stay tuned.

UPDATE 111pm: Smarmy reports that Kubica's manager has told him that he's spoken to the Pole, that he is responsive, and still "stable". I'm starting to think that we might have dodged a bullet.

UPDATE 156pm: Robert Kubica reportedly (uncofirmed) has escaped his horrendous crash with nothing worse than a broken leg. This is incredibly good news, if true, considering what it looked like. More information will be posted as it comes, and watch for the F1 UPDATE!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:49 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 I'm still hoping Kubica's okay. That was a horrendous crash.

Supposedly he just has a broken leg, then Varsha came on and said even that was unconfirmed.

I also found the fact that they did not show Kubica or any further work at the crash scene quite ominous.

I'm going to say a prayer that he's okay.

Posted by: Mallory at June 10, 2007 07:06 AM (iLcnv)

2 Yep, we've heard broken leg over here too, and I'm very relieved to hear it, that looked just awful.

Posted by: flotsky at June 10, 2007 07:12 AM (/n2FK)

3 I wanted to go see what mainline news said about it, and went to the CNN site.

To find F1 news, you have to click the "NASCAR" tab on the CNN Sports main page. Ah, the shame of it...

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 10, 2007 07:57 AM (+rSRq)

4 Actually, it turns out that wrecks which look this spectacular are safer for the driver than wrecks where the cars hold together. That's something that came out of intensive engineering analysis work sponsored by the Indy race. Cars in the 1950's and 1960's were built quite solid, and would survive wrecks largely intact -- but the drivers kept dying.

What they realized was that it was an issue of energy dissipation. Energy which goes to breaking the car apart is energy which doesn't go to killing the driver. Later cars were designed so that they would come apart in wrecks, and the fatality rate went down as a result.

All that wreckage flying every which way looks horrendous, and of course it does represent a hazard to other drivers and potentially to the crowd, but it's probably part of why Kubica came out of it alive.

On the other hand, there's probably nothing in that car that can be saved. They'll have to build a new one from scratch. Of course, if he's got a broken leg then he's out for the season, too. Seems like BMW is going to have to compete with one less entry for the rest of the year.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 10, 2007 12:19 PM (+rSRq)

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