The man was secured to a stretcher and taken by the ambulance to the hospital where he received medical attention. But at the track, a quiet crowd discussed what had happened. Apparently he saw a vehicle flipped over in the double jump and leaned over to pick it up without looking to see if there were oncoming cars. The driver of the 1/8 buggy was already committed in the air with no way to avoid the collision and it happened, it was an accident.
During the discussion someone said they had heard of another recent incident where an RC vehicle veered off the track and hit someone standing beside the track, again, it was an accident, but that isn’t the end of the story. They went on to say the bystander who was struck and apparently suffered a broken appendage is now involving multiple parties in a lawsuit. Oddly enough, when I returned to the RC Driver offices on Monday, I received a call from a concerned RC driver who races at the track where this incident happened and gave me the same description of what went down. This brings up an important question, who is responsible for what happens at the track?
Since the start of RC racing there has been an unwritten rule that when you attend an RC event whether as a driver or spectator, you assume any and all risk while attending the event. Now although this rule is in place, it hasn’t and shouldn’t prevent tracks from getting liability insurance, posting liability information, requiring waivers to be signed and many have sought out affiliation with sanctioning RC race organizations for coverage under their insurance. But how protected are the tracks and perhaps more importantly how liable are you as a driver if your vehicle accidentally strikes and hurts someone or causes damage to property?
In this day and age, those unwritten rules of assumed risk at the track, for lack of a better term “don’t mean squat.”
Unfortunately people no longer accept responsibilities for their actions or for any risky situations they may put themselves in. When you show up to an RC event or any event or any life situation for that matter, there is risk involved, nobody can predict the unknown to keep someone out of harm’s way. Accidents happen and they are just that, accidents. There are still many that step up and admit fault and accept what happened to them, like the man who was spectating at this past weekend’s race and admitted to reaching for a car without looking. But on the other side of the spectrum, there are those looking to gain from an accidental situation.
There will be varying opinions, of course, on what should happen in a case like this and everyone is entitled to their opinion. But incidents like these can cause problems for the hobby’s future. Do all tracks need to seek out every option in liability insurance? Should racers seek some sort of umbrella insurance to cover them in case their equipment causes an accident? Will clubs need to seek special waivers for everyone who enters the property to sign and will they need additional staff to enforce rules and safety? A lot of the possibilities for protection come with additional financial cost. Many tracks operate on low returns to begin with and added expenses could hurt profit. Can private clubs still be targeted and what can they do to prevent it? There are so many questions and there are no clear-cut answers. To get some sort of basic protection advice to pass along, I turned to long-time friend and successful track owner Lester Bastenbeck of Wolcott Hobby & Raceway. He fortunately has not had to deal with this situation, but did recommend that track owners have insurance and signage that states spectators and participants enter the property at their own risk. It may not fully protect the owners or business, but it’s something that may lessen the chances of things getting messy.
It’s hard for me to think that incidents that happen at the track may become more a part of our hobby’s future and how it is shaped, that it may potentially cause tracks to close which constricts our sport more; but it is what it is. I just urge participants, owners and spectators to use caution and common sense while they have fun enjoying this sport and hobby.
This compels me to tell my story, which I think relates in the sense of RCs and legal issues. There is law here prohibiting RCs in state parks. We have talked with rangers, and thought we had approval to run in our favorite rock crawling area, but recently we were chased out by a park ranger. We came to find out later that recently a large RC heli crashed into a crowd of spectators, seriously injuring one, which has caused authorities to start have to start enforcing the existing laws. Now I feel that our rock crawlers are not traveling fast enough to be of any real threat to anyone, but I can understand we can’t expect them to train law enforcent on the difference between a rock crawler and a nitro monster truck. There is also a law that was put in place for those GoPeds, but apparently nitro RCs also fall into this group, which basically says we can only run our nitro RCs on private property. If a policeman ever stops when I’m running my nitros, it is to take interest, but if there was one major incident, they could be forced to enforce this law. Many tracks around here are struggling, the added expense of insurance could break them. I can see how if all laws were enforced, and the tracks closed down, it would basically be illegal to run a RC vehicle outside of your backyard. I would hope there would be reform in the laws that would distinguish between a large heli, and a crawler before it gets to that point. I don’t even think it is right to lump RCs in with GoPeds, that just seems all kinds of wrong to me. The point I am trying to get to is, up until this point I feel our hobby has had a very positive image, but with so many high powered models on the market, we have to very careful, or we could turn into outlaws. Particularly if you’re running on a public street, such as in front of your house, where an unsuspecting bystander could come out of no where.
When I raced Nitro boats years ago, we had to carry an insurance rider. It was for $1,000,000. It didn’t cost that much, maybe $20, but to race in public area’s there is allways a chance that a boat’s reciever to get wet, hence you lost control of the boat. If you got luck the boat ran in circles till it ran out of fuel, then again, I have seen my own boats loose reception and going straight acroos the lake to smash into the rocks. Thinking od what might have happened if the boat struck a real boat broad side there could be major damage to the boats owner, worst what if the boat struck a person in the water. So maybe it’s time for people who own any kind of remote controlled vechile to think about the liability of what they are operating. The radio control industry is making some big stride in machines going faster, weighing more, and now with the explosion of Drone copters, what if one was to have an issue, the copter’s engins stopped, it could hurt someone bad or even worst, kill someone. The operators should be responsible for what ever it is they are operating, accident’s do happen, we all have seen it or have had it happen.
This a topic that should be being discussed. I think as the owner/operator of any RC model, you should fully understand that these models are capable of causing serious bodily injury. If we aware of that fact at all times, and the fact that WE as the operator are the only ones in control of the models we will naturally avoid any situations where someone can get hurt.
I learned this the VERY hard way. I was running my Son’s brushless 2WD Slash and accidentally collided with his leg at half speed in a power slide as he ran towards the truck. Needless to say…he was wearing a cast for the next six weeks. Yes, it broke his leg. It did not shatter it or break it completely, but it did cause a very painful minor fracture.
It actually didn’t stop there. At the hospital and their hundred questions about the injury, I had mentioned the RC truck. A couple weeks later the State of PA wanted to know why a vehicle had struck my son and why there was not a vehicle insurance claim. This goes to prove that the law does NOT distinguish between model RC’s and actual vehicles that are licensed and registered to be driven on the streets. It took several letters and phone calls before it was fully understood that it was a 1/10th scale 6 pound RC truck not a 4000 pound Ford before they were off my back. To this day, it has destroyed my Son’s interest in the hobby. I’m still so regretful. But as the author writes, these are accidents.
So the next time the neighborhood kids come running to watch you run your model. Make them stand way far away. I can see a parent screaming a lawsuit on something similar to my experience.
Jeff
This is a serious issue most people racing and or “bashing” do not look far ahead of where their car is at. That opens a opportunity that someone might have Marshaled a car and then be is process of moving back to where the marshal spot is. It is human nature to rush to get the car back in the race but then move slowly back. several years ago ate a race in Grand Rapids, MI. I saw just such an occurrence. it was an 1/8 scale electric buggy race the crash was on the back straight and the marshal because the tube was tight to the wall at that part of the track walked in the lane back to the marshal cone and was clipped by a buggy. in this case he was ok. but NO track of any size should operate without insurance coverage. It is not that expensive. It however needs to be noted that all the policies I have seen cover spectators but not the racers that would require either a good waiver or join ROAR as a track and require all the racers also be ROAR members.