COTA Austin - construction and infrastructure

[strad]

Condolences for him and his friends and family..sadly an all to common accident.

[Richard]

That is bad. Construction is a very dangerous industry.

Do tractors, diggers and tipper trucks have roll cages in the US? They are mandated in the UK.

[hairy_scotsman]

According to 10PM local TV news reports, he is still in critical condition. They showed video of the patient being wheeled from a StarFlight MedEvac helicopter into the ER at Brackenridge Hospital. No chest compressions were being perfomed and the Flight Nurse was supporting his respiratory efforts with a BVM. Hopefully these are good signs. Hope for the best.

Here's the latest update from the Statesman, 10:25PM Central Time:

http://www.statesman.com/sports/formula ... 05929.html

[xpensive]

That is bad. Construction is a very dangerous industry.

Do tractors, diggers and tipper trucks have roll cages in the US? They are mandated in the UK.

I could imagine that richard, in particular if you're working in a rush on a tight schedule perhaps?

[countersteer]

That is bad. Construction is a very dangerous industry.

Do tractors, diggers and tipper trucks have roll cages in the US? They are mandated in the UK.

Yes, they are mandated. It may have been that he was not the operator and it rolled onto him while he was alongside.

[FW17]

The reports say it was the operator

[hairy_scotsman]

We will see. We don't know much about the accident yet.

Also, while it's certainly possible, I'm unsure of the claims of cardiac arrest due to trauma.

[Richard]

In my personal opinion, the details of someone's medical treatment is not a suitable topic for public speculation.

[xpensive]

In my personal opinion, the details of someone's medical treatment is not a suitable topic for public speculation.

I agree, but those awful "R.I.P"-threads are even worse, as if anyone on the forum knew Dan Wheldon?

Embarrassing and patehetic if you ask me.

[bhall]

Embarrassing and [pathetic] if you ask me.

One might even say it's delusional and entirely self-serving.

[hairy_scotsman]

BTW, I pushed these to the back burner yesterday due to the accident news, but I took a bunch of construction photos Monday morning. Any of you who follow my twitter feed (@austin_f1) may have already seen them, but for those of you who haven't, here they are:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 878&type=1

For those of you not on Facebook, here are some highlights:

The west half of the Pit/Paddock Building, the media Center, and the beginnings of the Main Grandstand:




Grandstand construction going vertical on the west end near the Media Center:








Media Center and west end of Pit/Paddock Building:






East half of the Pit/Paddock Building:




East end of Pit/Paddock and the Medical Center:




Medical Center:




"The Wall"...LOL:




Scraper making the steep Turn 1 climb:






Turn 11 Hairpin ( R), Turn 10 (L), and the Longhorn Straight:




Hairpin & Longhorn Straight:




The Hairpin is pretty tight:




Longhorn Straight. Yesterday's accident likely happened somewhere in the area beyond & right of the straight in this photo:




Love the elevation:

[hairy_scotsman]

In my personal opinion, the details of someone's medical treatment is not a suitable topic for public speculation.

Actually, I would tend to agree. That's really why I posted that.

People are out there right now laying blame (very opportunistically, I might add) and stating things about the accident and this man's condition (both present and at the time of the accident) that we really are unsure of.

I'm not doubting the EMS spokesman, Warren Hassinger. I work with Warren. He's the consummate pro and is great at what he does. Any doubts I harbor lie with info reported initially from the field. It was widely reported that this man suffered cardiac arrest due to trauma, based on reports from one or more 911 call. I find this report dubious for medical reasons. We often get unreliable reports from 911 callers in the field. It's possible that they confused unresponsiveness with full-blown cardiac arrest, but the 911 call-taker is at the mercy of the caller. They have to respond according to what the caller tells them, reliable or not. Seriously, this happens literally every day in our business.

Certainly I'm not finding fault with 911 callers or calling anyone a liar, as they were simply doing the best they could under the circumstances.

My point in the post (although I admittedly did not elaborate) is that we really don't know yet what happened or how severe was the trauma and that continued spread of the "trauma cardiac arrest" story is pointless. While I'm skeptical of the trauma arrest claim, it is certainly possible. However, the news media generally goes with the first report they hear (accurate or not) and then repeats it ad nauseum.

Sorry for any confusion! Hope that clears things up a bit.

[xpensive]

Embarrassing and [pathetic] if you ask me.

One might even say it's delusional and entirely self-serving.

Quite, which makes a thread like "R.I.P Dan Wheldon" disrespectful to his family, I couldn't believe it when saw it on the board.

[strad]

Yes Richard ..You are the arbitrator of all things tasteful and proper.

[hairy_scotsman]

Here's the latest accident news from KXAN, including a report of OSHA investigating today at the site:

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/aust ... um=twitter