Comments on: Serious injury at Atlanta Downhill Challenge soapbox derby

By: reality

reality — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:53:15 +0000

putting blame towards orginizers is waay wrong. I was at the start line when this happened. My thoughts and prayers go out to him. It was terrible accident that in no way was the fault of any event orginizers. There were rules that the driver signed that included helmet regulations. Its 100% his own fault. The guy didn’t strap on his helmet. He never touched his brakes. He was trying to show off at the end by turning quickly to cause himself to spin out. His car was too top heavy to do that. I’m not trying to be harsh towards the driver, i wish him the best but its just not fair to blame the organizer for mistakes that he made himself. Lessons were definately learned by all.

By: jjjjjjjjjjjj

jjjjjjjjjjjj — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:52:53 +0000

After witnessing the crash at close range I am so grateful that the dude is going to be okay. Putting aside commentary about his choices prior to racing, I do fault race organizers. If you have rules follow them. They won’t let you ride the rollercoaster at Six Flags without a seatbelt on just because you sign a waiver. Race organizers should have specific helmet requirements and should not allow racers to race without a proper helmet. This is not some podunk event on Uncle Jed’s farm. The Derby has become a widely publicized, well attended event and with that comes responsibilities which include having an ambulance on site. It was absolutely more than ten minutes before an ambulance arrived. It seemed like an eternity while watching dude laying motionless on the ground, but my watch told me it was more than ten minutes. Without question there should have been an ambulance on site. Costs for the event should be adjusted to cover expenses related to safety.

Let me say, through friends I have heard great things about the organizers of this event. I have no doubt they are well-intentioned caring people. That said, realize what you’re dealing with folks. People are drinking. People are racing homemade vehicles. People are not properly helmented. Dude could have been killed and certainly could have been left with permanent disabling injuries. As it stands now he is facing a long recovery and who knows what lasting effects from this accident. And as is clear from the tone of these posts, many spectators were profoundly impacted by witnessing the crash. I know I was.

By: rebekha

rebekha — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:13:43 +0000

I spent some time with Courtney in the hospital today. He is so inspirational and positive. It was a blessing to be around him! We are asking people to donate some money to his cause, please see my message above…thanks!

By: rebekha

rebekha — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:31:01 +0000

Thank you Fern for being a wonderful friend to Courtney! It makes me feel better knowing that he has good friends around him.

To everyone else…we are raising some money for Courtney to help him get back on his feet.
Please send money to his friend Fern who is handling all the money on his behalf. We are using PayPal and her g-mail address is: fern.lovelace@gmail.com

Here is the donation link:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=KJR3ARSGKDHCC&lc=US&item_name=Courtney%2dSoap%20Box%20Derby%202008&item_number=Cpegus¤cy_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3aPB150198%2ejpg%3aNonHosted

Thanks so much for all your support!

By: Fern

Fern — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:08:07 +0000

Hi All,

I am a friend of Courtney and I was at the race with him. Thanks so much for all the well wishes. Courtney is doing a bit better today. He will probably be in the hospital a couple more days and will take a couple weeks at least for what we hope will be a full recovery. I want to give a special thanks for Rebekka, she has been wonderful through this and I really appreciate all her help and concerns. Rebekka..please continue with the Soap Box Derby..it was a blast and Courtney does not want his accident to be the end of this wonderful event!! Thanks everyone!! Fern

By: A friend

A friend — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:08:22 +0000

This guy is actually a friend of mine. I just visited him at the hospital. He is doing okay. He suffered broken bones in his face, broken collar bone, skull fracture and a black eye. Long recovery but it looks like he will recover fully.

By: D.D.D.Dave

D.D.D.Dave — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:58:28 +0000

With the exception of the crash and the first band sounding like a bad version of Nickleback (is that even possible) this was a great day. I love seeing the community gather for events like this and Atlanta needs more of them. I’ll be there next year with the Stock Market Car…now I just gotta find an engineer…

By: OK

OK — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:56:23 +0000

I don’t think anyone is faulting the organizers for what happened. The point is that because safety should always be the #1 concern of any event, 3 important lessons were learned, and new practices will need to be adopted going forward:

1) Regardless of the cost, an ambulance should be on the scene. No exceptions.

2) If minimum safety requirements are stated (ie: “All drivers must wear a helmet and safety protection while racing”), they should be adhered to or you don’t race. It’s that simple.

3) A revision of the present course layout would clearly help to reduce the high rate of rollovers.

These criticisms are offered purely in the spirit of improving in the future what is already a great event.

Thanks ADC!

By: DaleC

DaleC — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:47:02 +0000

The on site ambulance is a necessity and the organizers should probably look into a liabilty policy to cover the event. Now that there has been a serious accident, the next one is foreseeable and a personal injury attorney could eat the next one alive.

I love the Colorado laws where extreme skiing, cycleing, hang gliding and all kinds of dangerous activities occur on public an dprivate land. They can be effectively summed up with “Your on your own. Hope you aren’t a dumbass”.

By: sassyassy

sassyassy — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:41:04 +0000

i had a friend at the starting line with this person who saw that he had an umbrella between his legs in the car at the start, which was supposed to act as his brake. not sure of the “truthiness” of this.

i agree that as adults, we are all responsible for our safety. i do, however, agree that the organizers should look into the cost of having an ambulance on site next year. i wouldn’t mind paying an extra few bucks to get in to never have to witness what i did on saturday. ugh.