Crazy car wreck in Japan - vid

[Ricochet]

I don't think the red car's driver survived..

http://67.19.224.146/files03/japancrash.wmv

[grncivicdhr]

holy sh*t!!!!!! i doubt he survived.

[Suislide]

actually, the driver DID survive and is still alive today. his name is Tetsuya Ota, and he just recently won a lawsuit against the track. 90 million Yen (about $850,000) went to him in the lawsuit.

he sued because the safety crew left him in the blazing inferno for almost 90 seconds before trying to extract him from the car.

he suffered major burns to most of his body and was forced to end his driving career as a result of the injuries sustained. his new nose had to be fashioned out of skin grafted from his forehead and he still has trouble to this day moving his right arm and hand.


i have another video of the aftermath of the crash, which is very hard to watch. the driver climbs out of the car and immediatley falls on the ground onto his back. smoke can be seen billowing from the frontal opening of his helmet as he lays there. after a few seconds he tries to get up and immediatley falls over again. at this point an emergency worker comes over and helps him to walk off of the track, but the driver is thrashing the entire time trying to get his helmet off, which is undoubtedly melted to his face and head.

[Ricochet]

Any way you can share that vid?

[Suislide]

http://members.roadfly.org/dakar2m/aftermath2.mpeg

http://violator.imagesquad.com/aftermath2.mpeg


there's 2 links to it, in case one doesn't work.

if they both don't work...well then too bad, i guess.

[Ricochet]

I've never met him but am really glad he made it.

[Ricochet]

I found this article about him..

http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archi...fp019000c.html

[_WIDE_LOAD_]

fuck man, that shit is pretty hardcore. gave me chills man.

[Beastiek2]

Pretty amazing, good post.

[Broke_as_****]

Head on into another car is a bad place to test the strength of your fuel cell. I can't believe they waited so long, they must have either just thought the poor bastard died already or were just too afraid of the fire. Fortunately, those nomex suits are the ****.

As for the second video, there was only one guy even attempting to help the driver. Wtf? Even then all he does is pull off a few burnt pieces of suit, pats the driver on the shoulder and walks off. WTF?

What kills me is the guy waving the yellow flag in the tower as if anyone could see through the smoke or water spray, which ever it was. Looked like it had rained hard.

[ec437]

holy damn! I can only imagine what it must have been like to be driving that white car (looked like a viper?) at about the 33 second mark...

[Suislide]

you mean the one that narrowly misses hitting the flaming Ferrari?

i think it was a Porsche 911, but yeah i know what you mean.

[ec437]

and I though *almost* avoiding that gs300 that cut me off was a rush.

[engineer]

ive seen this vid and holy shit thats bad and its also bad what happened to the guy, yes tracks fault and medics crews fault but lawsuits like this are going to have a negative impact on all levels of motorsport and recreational motoring worldwide. thats the part that sucks so much. i mean yeah the help was inadequate, but seeing the amount of rain the race shouldve been red flagged or the safety car shouldve been going slower. and when u see drivers swerving in the rain trying to get heat into the tyres.... somethings gonna happen.

dont get me wrong what happened to tthat guy was horrific and anything he gets from the lawsuit he deserves, but i just think about the wider consequenses of this incident

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

At first I was thinking, "whats the big deal?" But then I was saying, "Holy shit!".