Justin Wilson in coma after IndyCar Pocono accident

IndyCar official Twitter feed ^ | 8-23-2015 | IRL

[BlueNgold]

Justin Wilson, a British IndyCar driver, was struck in the head by debris from another car during today's race.

IndyCar reports he is in a coma and listed in critical condition.

[BlueNgold]

Prayers

[Never on my watch]

Prayers

Ditto.

[nascarnation]

Sage Karam wrecks and the nose of his car flies back and strikes Wilson’s helmet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PG—4msJp4

[fieldmarshaldj]

Prayers for him.

[freedumb2003]

Dangerous sport — prayers for him and the family!

[Jack Hydrazine]

At first I thought it was...

[henkster]

Not good. Wilson is a good driver, and popular with other drivers. He’s one of the good guys we like. Prayers for a full rcovery.

[hoosiermama]

Tony Stewart has made his plane available to take family to hospital. Has there been any other news?

[henkster]

Nothing I’ve seen yet.

[hoosiermama]

Prayers up

[MtnClimber]

A really bad situation. Sent prayers when it happened. He and his family now live here in Colorado, but I don;t know where. Hope he recovers fully. He seems like a great person.

[hoosiermama]

Head injuries can be tricky. Lost daughter to a dear friend when a mower flipped and threw her. Not a scratch on her. Just the head injury.

[MtnClimber]

I know head injuries can be tricky. He was going really fast when that piece that looked like the nose cone hit him. Hope the helmet protected him some.

[hoosiermama]

First 48 hours are worse. MUst keep swelling down.

[djstex]

Prayers

[Trailerpark Badass]

That piece of debris looked like it went 100 feet in the air after hitting his helmet.

[Hebrews 11:6]

While praying for his recovery, it raises an issue I've long wondered about that you, with your extensive fan experience at Indy, might answer. Having watched Indy 500s since the '50s, I've been gratified to note the great reduction--though certainly not elimination--of deaths and serious injuries. The chief driver vulnerability now has seemed to me to be the exposure of the drivers' heads and upper torsos in these open cockpits, versus the somewhat better protection afforded by stock car roofs and roof supports.

So, why hasn't some protection been mandated? At this point, it's rather like baseball was before batting helmets became mandatory in the '50s: unnecessary risk. I say this as one whose son-in-law was paralyzed in a motocross wreck, a voluntary foolhardy activity.

[henkster]

As you mentioned, driver safety has improved dramatically and is always a top concern. As for driver enclosure, the biggest reason they don’t want to put them in a “cockpit” is it would hamper the ability of the safety crew to extract the driver, particularly where fire was involved and speed is essential

[Hebrews 11:6]

I see--thanks for the explanation. Of course, NASCAR cannot adopt that view and still have its cars resemble "stock" cars.

Then again, I don't know that a "cockpit" per se is needed; instead, a steel bar or two in front and above would seemingly protect against larger pieces of flying debris, while still permitting rapid egress. I believe they already hampered rapid escape somewhat when recently mandating the HANS restraint, so obviously there is some trade-off in play. It will be interesting to see what transpires going forward.

[arbitrary.squid]

Unfortunate news, he passed away.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3328768/