Olympic luge track at Whistler proves deadly

[jostenmeat]

Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died today when he flew off the track, over the wall, and crashed into a steel pole/column at close to 90mph.

This is him on his first run today; he died after the second, at the hospital.

There seem to be some complaints (and several accidents) on this track. Did the designers push it too far? It could prove very uncomfortable to watch this event.


http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Olympics/2010/0212/Luge-death-of-Nodar-Kumaritashvili-shows-danger-of-Whistler-track

http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-news/n/news/afp-news/luge--georgian-luge-slider-suffers-crash_273772sA.html

 

[TLS Guy]

Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died today when he flew off the track, over the wall, and crashed into a steel pole/column at close to 90mph.

This is him on his first run today; he died after the second, at the hospital.

There seem to be some complaints (and several accidents) on this track. Did the designers push it too far? It could prove very uncomfortable to watch this event.


http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Olympics/2010/0212/Luge-death-of-Nodar-Kumaritashvili-shows-danger-of-Whistler-track

http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-news/n/news/afp-news/luge--georgian-luge-slider-suffers-crash_273772sA.html

That is a sad tale, that modern engineers and designers have a hand in.

Typical of this poor performing age, that structure was budgeted at $55 million CDN, but ended up costing $105 million CDN.

I have looked at a number of pictures of this track on line, and it looks like a really ill conceived rookies job.

Seems to me the engineers snoozed through physics class. Calculating centrifugal forces in a situation like this would be considered high school physics in my day. In fact I could well have seen my high school physics master giving us a test question to calculate slopes and height of the sides required to stop humans of typical weights flying over the top of the track at around 100 mph.

This looks like another disgrace of this shoddy modern age. They should scrap that event for this year in my view.

 

[speakerman39]

A very sad day indeed. Not the best way to start off the games. My heart goes out to all of his friends and family. RIP! He will be remembered.



Sincerely,

Phil

 

[aberkowitz]

Seems to me the engineers snoozed through physics class. Calculating centrifugal forces in a situation like this would be considered high school physics in my day. In fact I could well have seen my high school physics master giving us a test question to calculate slopes and height of the sides required to stop humans of typical weights flying over the top of the track at around 100 mph.

This looks like another disgrace of this shoddy modern age. They should scrap that event for this year in my view.

I won't disagree that the designers pushed the envelope with this track, but it should be noted that the Luger who died was "only" going 88 mph at the time of his death. Most luge tracks (including the one at Salt Lake City) see top racers going 91-92 mph. There was talk about this track seeing speeds in excess of 94 mph. At this point, I don't know how much of the accident can be chalked up to the track, and how much can be attributed to bad luck.

 

[jostenmeat]

They should scrap that event for this year in my view.

I agree, unless they successfully add to the "restricting" wall like some are speculating.

I won't disagree that the designers pushed the envelope with this track, but it should be noted that the Luger who died was "only" going 88 mph at the time of his death. Most luge tracks (including the one at Salt Lake City) see top racers going 91-92 mph. There was talk about this track seeing speeds in excess of 94 mph. At this point, I don't know how much of the accident can be chalked up to the track, and how much can be attributed to bad luck.

AFAIK, whether the speed is 88 or 94, the track must be designed so that the person stays on the track even if he/she falls off the luge. That was my understanding, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I think the place where it happened is the fastest part of the track. Now, that's just a practice run, but when competitive juices flow, on international television for the glory of national pride and recognition, well, I think they need to fix it, or scrap it.

 

[highfigh]

IMO, they shouldn't run the luge unless the temperature allows the ice to be good enough for high speeds to be attained. The temperatures have been far too high for winter games.

 

[TLS Guy]

I won't disagree that the designers pushed the envelope with this track, but it should be noted that the Luger who died was "only" going 88 mph at the time of his death. Most luge tracks (including the one at Salt Lake City) see top racers going 91-92 mph. There was talk about this track seeing speeds in excess of 94 mph. At this point, I don't know how much of the accident can be chalked up to the track, and how much can be attributed to bad luck.

I have dug this up: -

[Although both the international luge and bobsleigh federations declared the track safe and Games-ready a year ago, the International Luge Federation (FIL) president Josef Fendt of Germany told reporters that the sporting body wanted less-experienced, and less-talented lugers to have more training time at the WSC prior to the Vancouver Games. Fendt also said the protective devices near the track’s curb were too short, and needed to be lengthened so athletes were protected from flying from the track.]

The changes were not made by the Canadian Olympic Committee.

 

[aberkowitz]

I have dug this up: -

[Although both the international luge and bobsleigh federations declared the track safe and Games-ready a year ago, the International Luge Federation (FIL) president Josef Fendt of Germany told reporters that the sporting body wanted less-experienced, and less-talented lugers to have more training time at the WSC prior to the Vancouver Games. Fendt also said the protective devices near the track’s curb were too short, and needed to be lengthened so athletes were protected from flying from the track.]

The changes were not made by the Canadian Olympic Committee.

The point about practice time I completely agree with. I heard earlier today that the Canadians did not allow any other team from practicing on the new track up until very recently. Typical olympics gamesmanship.... but not necessarily a very smart thing to do.

 

[GO-NAD!]

The point about practice time I completely agree with. I heard earlier today that the Canadians did not allow any other team from practicing on the new track up until very recently. Typical olympics gamesmanship.... but not necessarily a very smart thing to do.

As a Canadian, it certainly doesn't feel good that something like this could happen here. As far as I'm concerned, these tracks should be designed so that there is no possible way for anyone to be thrown off, under any circumstances. I, like most people, know next to nothing about luge, bobsleigh, etc. But the Doc is right - it's just physics. Competent engineers should've been able to figure this out correctly. Unless of course, non-engineering types overuled the engineers. But we know that would never happen...

Apparently, the Russians were intending to build an even faster track for Sochi, but were told to slow it down.

 

[Chu Gai]

I don't know enough about this and whether there are engineering issues at play here or a girder (based on a video I saw of the crash) that maybe ought to have been placed differently. However, I don't think you can eliminate risk and it's the risk that draws many people towards some events be it luge, downhill racing, Nascar, skydiving, or whatever. The very real dangers is what makes many events and activities compelling for some to participate in and for others to watch.

 

[highfigh]

I don't know enough about this and whether there are engineering issues at play here or a girder (based on a video I saw of the crash) that maybe ought to have been placed differently. However, I don't think you can eliminate risk and it's the risk that draws many people towards some events be it luge, downhill racing, Nascar, skydiving, or whatever. The very real dangers is what makes many events and activities compelling for some to participate in and for others to watch.

The structural members need to be where they need to be- placing them in different places may require too much space to be lost in order to beef up some other support, but if there's any danger of the sled leaving the track, the possibility of the sled impacting any structural components need to be removed from the scenario.

This didn't need to happen- the structure could have remained but some kind of shield should have been installed. The physics isn't all that complicated- of the minimum speed isn't maintained on the turns, the only thing that will happen is the luge will drop off of the track because of gravity and some means of containing the sled is needed.

 

[jostenmeat]

Well, the little blurb I read today says that they are starting the luge track further down, which will slow down speeds. I think they said about two seconds slower overall, which made enough of a difference where the cameramen had a hard time tracking the competitors on their runs. They also added to the wall where the terrible accident occurred, IIRC, I want to say turn 16 or something.

 

[just-some-guy]

that was HORRIFIC !!! R.I.P. Nodar Kumaritashvili

 

[lsiberian]

This is a how changes are made.

Sadly sports only make changes when people die. NASCAR let their top driver die before they mandated the device that could have saved him and installed soft walls. I think a softwall would be a much better barrier than a concrete one. leaving poles in the line of fire is stupidity.