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A video showing how close spectators got to being hit by a car that crashed over a safety fence was an “eye opener”, Speedway’s president says.
Speedway NZ is investigating after the car flew over a safety fence in a streetstocks race at Beachlands Speedway in Dunedin on Friday night.
The video shows a streetstock turning a corner before suddenly hitting another car and launching over the fences around the track, flipping just metres from the crowd.
The other car on the track also flipped over multiple times, ending on its side at the track wall.
Speedway NZ president Ricky Bolton said he had instructed his team to do an in-depth investigation into the incident to see if standards needed to be raised to stop something similar happening in the future.
Raising the height of the fence would be considered as part of the investigation.
But Bolton said fence heights were raised “quite substantially” 10 years ago following an international investigation.
Fences used to be 1.8 metres – “basically the height of a person” – to the 4m they are now.
“There’s obviously a few factors for us to look at; track conditions, the cars obviously and whether the fences were strong enough and high enough.”
Bolton said it did have an outside body that would help with the investigation as “we are conscious that when you are looking at yourself it’s very hard to be critical to some extent”.
Racing continued the next day after the fence had been rebuilt to the standard it was before the incident occurred.
“The club chose to put up a second barrier and keep the crowd further back because they were obviously a little bit nervous given the fact that a car got over there.”
When asked if it was wise to go ahead with racing given the incident, Bolton said it was unfair for competitors and spectators to shut it down over “one freak accident”.
Like any health and safety investigation, “life goes on” until any such time when an investigation may show changes were needed.
Bolton said such mishaps during racing were recorded but he did not have the information on hand.
Mud strikes were the biggest issue the organisation dealt with – when people got hit by mud through the fence.
He said a car had not gone over a fence since 2007.
Bolton said he hoped to have the report back before the racing season began again in October.
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