Two weeks ago, a popped coolant hose on a Porsche was the start of a chain reaction of crashes that saw 14 cars crash on the Nurburgring. Earlier today (Nov 11, 2017) POV video shows what it looked like from the driver’s seat of one of those cars as more than a dozen crashes happened right before his eyes. Take a look at that video below courtesy of REFS420 via facebook.
The driver in the video was fortunate enough to spot a plume of smoke more than 100 yards away and was able to slow, pulling over to the side of the track. A couple of cars in his wake didn’t take heed of multiple cars pulling over and continued through the smoke, braking way too late and consequently crashing. Even when the camera owner climbs out of his car and waves down speeding approaching cars, many still drive through at speed, crashing into the cars that just crashed moments before.
According to a blog post from Bridge to Gantry around that same time, it looks like an absent flag marshal was to blame for the string of crashes that happened shortly after the first one. Hindsight is 20/20 but presumably, if there was a flag marshall present, then he would’ve been able to warn drivers and trigger a yellow light status on T13, that particular turn on the track. As a result, drivers expecting green conditions were hit with a nasty surprise.
A German police report says that three people were seriously injured and two more suffered lesser injuries. Total property damage is expected to be in the six-figure amount. This German police report does make an important point. First and foremost, drivers on the Nurburgring should be vigilant at all times and not rely on warning lights on the occasion that the warning system fails. But they also state that drivers should get behind crash barriers as soon as possible. German police are probably hinting that a couple of injuries could’ve been avoided if they jumped out of their cars right away.
The risk of crash and injury is, unfortunately, part of high-performance driving. If this video teaches us anything, it’s that as drivers, we must be always vigilant of our surroundings and react instinctively to keep ourselves safe when conditions “go south.
