Anyone know the back story on this?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/07/21/14-year-old-texas-girl-dies-in-go-kart-crash/?intcmp=latestnews

Not looking for a gory video or anything like that or any accusations of who's "fault" it was. There just wasn't much info in the story. I'm wondering what class cart it was, top speed, any safety equipment, etc. I've been trying to convince my club to allow my son to race a cart. I'm guessing that's probably out of the question now, which may be just fine. As far as I recall, this is the first autocross death during the five years or so that I've been racing.

On a more important note, sincere condolences to the family. Hope no one here was affected.

Condolences also.

My local autocross board has a topic going on it now as we've got a few folks who's kids run karts at our events and even an adult who drives one. Sounds like a stuck throttle.

At the risk of stating the obvious, cars, karts and bikes leave racetracks for various reasons, but the serious injuries almost always involve hitting something near the track. Off-track obstacles is the place to start a safety evaluation.

Geeez......more horrible news on a weekend filled with bad news. So sorry for the family.

As a kart driver, and the parent of a kart driver, I am hoping that details come out as to what went wrong and why she went several hundred feet past the 200'+ stop box. I can't imagine what the family, friends, and participants are going through. When my son and I practice we always do an "Oh !@#$" drill, getting the kart shut off and to a complete stop as quickly as possible. I've tried to teach him that the moment the kart does something he doesn't want it to, he shuts it off and stands on the brake. We'll be doing more of this in the future and I'll personally be inspecting/testing all kart shut off switches at our events. She was a JA driver, and from past pictures posted on another forum, looks like she wore full gear (helmet, suit, shoes, gloves, etc). Engine looks to be a KT100, but I could be wrong about that.

In reply to chrispy:

May I suggest in addition to everything you said you pay particular attention the the track safety equipment (if you don't already). It sounds like a "safety wire" at head height may have been partially to blame. Just another area to point the finger. You can't be too careful when talking about the safety of the kids.

Very true.

Saw this on the news this morning, very sad.

All Engines should have a Cut-off switch, that really makes Kt100 dangerous, because even if you pull the plug boot as a last ditch effort it can still be dangerous EX: electrocute yourself. The worst accidents I have seen are typically the kids, chrispy glad to hear that you do some training to prevent some of these moments.

Heard of this yesterday, terrible news.

On the safety aspect, I have always sort of wondered why karts don't run a roll cage, the race karts are certainly fast enough to warrant that.

Curmudgeon wrote: Heard of this yesterday, terrible news. On the safety aspect, I have always sort of wondered why karts don't run a roll cage, the race karts are certainly fast enough to warrant that.

Champ Karts have cages and belts.

Curmudgeon wrote: Heard of this yesterday, terrible news. On the safety aspect, I have always sort of wondered why karts don't run a roll cage, the race karts are certainly fast enough to warrant that.

the simplest answer is that without a suspension, you rely on chassis flex. Tie it all together with a cage and you lose the ability to generate grip.

Curmudgeon wrote: On the safety aspect, I have always sort of wondered why karts don't run a roll cage, the race karts are certainly fast enough to warrant that.

Yeah, the cage and accompanying harness are what have me strongly considering Quarter Midgets over Karts for my kid. I've never really been too comfortable with the ejection-seat method of driver protection when it comes to serious incidents.

For what its worth, this is what I was asking my club to allow my son to run:

He would have gotten slaughtered in PAX, and likely would have had really slow raw times too, but at least there's some safety margin there. He and his grandpa are welding and reinforcing the "cage" before it even goes off road.

What I'd really like to see from SCCA is a "kids cart" class in autox (or even Rallyx) for carts like the above.

Sent a PM to our region's junior kart coordinator. His daughter has been running a kart for the past 5 years progressing from FJC to FJA, so I'm guessing he has an ear to the national junior kart world.

I think it'll be some time before we actually hear what happened. Rumor I've heard is she was off throttle during her off track excursion, so please don't jump to conclusions. We don't even know if it's medical or mechanical yet. My wife the middle school teacher said "I wonder if she had a seizure, teenagers are prone to it with all the hormones going on at that age"

The SCCA rules reference WKA karting rules, but I don't know if WKA requires kill-switches. We had an ex-roadrace kart that my boys used to autocross before the rules required youth karting stewards. It's been years ago and I have no memory of whether it had a kill-switch or not. That said, I drove it myself and believe that I could have stopped it with the brakes, even with the throttle stuck wide open. I agree that we need to wait until the results of the investigation are released before we evaluate what rule changes may be needed, rather than jumping to conclusions or taking knee-jerk actions.

All that said, my heart goes out to the family of the girl. I can't imagine what they're going through right now.

http://www.amazon.com/Remote-Engine-Switch-12-24VDC-Systems/dp/B006LE2W0U

what about that?

tpwalsh wrote: I think it'll be some time before we actually hear what happened. Rumor I've heard is she was off throttle during her off track excursion, so please don't jump to conclusions.

Interesting. No speculation here, just observation. The picture I saw looks like a KT100 engine. My son's kart with the same engine basically won't idle. It's an angry chainsaw. Lift off the throttle and coast for more than a couple seconds and the motor will die. Requires constant blipping in the pits or coming off track.

I feel for the family. We make conscious decisions to allow him to race. When we autocross, we've never had the same concerns about safety in the kart. I think all of us involved will put fresh eyes on everything we do related to karts and think more broadly about safety and what-ifs.

If it was brake failure there is really nothing to do but try to bleed speed by inducing a spin and I'm not sure I'd have the clarity of thought to do that, much less my 12 year old. Not sure anything would work once I hit grass either. I'll be going over both karts' brake systems this weekend. We don't have any cable fences, but we do have curbs, and hitting one of those in a kart will have serious consequences.

Curmudgeon wrote: Heard of this yesterday, terrible news. On the safety aspect, I have always sort of wondered why karts don't run a roll cage, the race karts are certainly fast enough to warrant that.

Because karts are pretty damn hard to roll, and on a track, you treat it like a motorcycle safety wise, that is you dress to get thrown out of it and slide across the track, often without injury.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: http://www.amazon.com/Remote-Engine-Switch-12-24VDC-Systems/dp/B006LE2W0U what about that?

They are not the panacea we'd all like to believe them to be. I've looked at these things for my son and his dirt bikes. Ultimately, I have yet to install one.

They have lousy range. Up to a few hundred feet at the most. Much/most of the time the kid is out of range. This includes an autocross course.

The reaction time required by you, the parent, to prevent an accident is all but impossible. You'd have to be hovering with your thumb over the trigger, all but anticipating the event. Realistically, at the most you're going to kill power after the crash. Not in time to prevent your son from running into a tree or creek (my place, my son) or something else at an autocross event.

You could also induce a crash by your well meaning cutting of power. Probably not on a go-cart, but on dirt bike it's quite possible. Kid is sliding through a turn, scaring you half to death, you cut power and down they go due to the changes in riding dynamics.

You can't be too careful when talking about the safety of the kids.

Considering the subject matter, this is.. a grimly ironic statement.

This e-mail just arrived in my inbox:

FROM: SCCA National Office

TO: All Solo Participants

SUBJECT: Kart Safety

SCCA wishes to remind all kart owners and drivers to ensure that their vehicle’s control parts, including, but not limited to, those relating to throttle and brake pedal assembly function (including extensions) and safeguards such as throttle return springs, etc., are in good working order without the potential to perform unintended functions.

Does anyone know of other sites where there are discussions about this? I understand liability and not wanting to assign cause in writing, however as a kart owner it is frustrating to not know the whole story. From the way that is written all I can do is infer that the pedal extensions rotated and wedged or hindered other controls.