Sad News: Luger Dies in Winter Olympics

[reds1869]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

Frost. It really is impractical to enclose the track when you consider the excess heat that the track would maintain. Then you have the temperature of the ice and freezing that. If they enclosed the track I am pretty sure the clear top would be full of frost and have very little viability.

Plus it would make it really difficult for rescue workers if a participant were injured on the track. They would have to travel the entire length of the track rather than hopping over the wall at the scene of the crash.

[Boston Red]

The WSJ did a pretty in-depth look at how this track came to be so dangerous. It does not make the participants look good in light of the death.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...617335586.html

[macro]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

Frost. It really is impractical to enclose the track when you consider the excess heat that the track would maintain. Then you have the temperature of the ice and freezing that. If they enclosed the track I am pretty sure the clear top would be full of frost and have very little viability.

Okay, forget the clear top. Just make it opaque. Can you imagine the suspense of everyone wondering when the guy is going to pop out the other end? <kidding>

[Yachtzee]

Originally Posted by camisadelgolf

He had a helmet and very light padding. I haven't been paying much attention to the incident, but initially, I heard a lot of people blame it on human error. Really? How do you know blame the course? I read that, relatively, the course was much faster than the other ones. I hope everyone moves on from this quickly with the event having as little affect on everyone involved as possible, but it's clear to me that this will need to have a change on future luging events.

I was listening to the radio today where they discussed the possibility of human error as the cause of the accident and they pretty much ruled it out. They said the Georgian luger was an experienced luger who had over 20 training runs on that particular track and came from a family of lugers. I think the problem is that the competitors are trained to make the fastest run possible and, by the time they reach the bottom, they may not realize they're going too fast to maintain control. I think in the future they might be wise to redesign some of these courses to have netting similar to what they have on the downhill courses. That way if someone does lose control, they fly into safety nets instead of poles.

[bucksfan2]

Originally Posted by Yachtzee

I was listening to the radio today where they discussed the possibility of human error as the cause of the accident and they pretty much ruled it out. They said the Georgian luger was an experienced luger who had over 20 training runs on that particular track and came from a family of lugers. I think the problem is that the competitors are trained to make the fastest run possible and, by the time they reach the bottom, they may not realize they're going too fast to maintain control. I think in the future they might be wise to redesign some of these courses to have netting similar to what they have on the downhill courses. That way if someone does lose control, they fly into safety nets instead of poles.

I am somewhat surprised they don't have more safety netting up on the course. I also have read that there hasn't been a luge fatality in over 25 years. I have read conflicting stories about the cause of the accident. The IOC said it was luger error, the Georgian Luge Federation said it was not luger error. Even if this guy were an expert luger, which I am not doubting one bit, experts make errors.

[Yachtzee]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

I am somewhat surprised they don't have more safety netting up on the course. I also have read that there hasn't been a luge fatality in over 25 years. I have read conflicting stories about the cause of the accident. The IOC said it was luger error, the Georgian Luge Federation said it was not luger error. Even if this guy were an expert luger, which I am not doubting one bit, experts make errors.

I don't know if the IOC and VANOC are the best ones to trust in this. They're the ones who participated in and signed off on the track design. Admitting publicly that the design of the track was at fault would basicly be taking responsibility for the death of an athlete and open them up to a lawsuit. However, I'd say most telling has been their actions since the accident, changing the start gates and adding padding and a wall to the dangerous section of the track. To me, it just seems ridiculous that they would have unpadded steel poles right at the exit of a high-speed turn. I think in any luge event, you have to expect that someone is going to have a bad run. However, the consequences should not result in a fatality.