Race Car Driver, 8, Dies After Slamming Her Car into Cement Barrier

[tripplej]

per yahoo, in Australia,

"An 8-year-old drag race driver is dead after her car collided with a cement barrier"

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Sad for her and her family.

My question is why would anybody or any organization allow a 8 year old kid to drag race?
Or is it the same logic that kids play football and they can die their as well or other physical contact sports?

Any thoughts?

 

[Matthew J Poes]

I don't have an explanation for why parents do these things. It's become common place for kids to engage in dangerous activities.

Children lack the cognitive reasoning of adults with significantly reduced emotional control. Placing them in high adrenaline risky scenarios is significantly more dangerous for kids than adults.

 

[tripplej]

I agree. I saw a documentary on dirt bike competitions and there were 5 or 6 year old kids competing. Highly risky to say the least.

I wonder if it is the financial draw? The winnings are enough to justify the risk?

 

[Matthew J Poes]

I won't pretend like there is no danger but I actually did motocross as a kid. Maybe between 8 and 12. We didn't win any money doing it for us it was just the fun.

Dirt bikes might be a little different. We ran a different dirt course that bad little hills and very little banking. We didn't jump off ramps, just slowly puttered over them. Kids used to run over each other all the time. I don't recall anyone getting hurt. The plastic exo-skeleton type chest protector and helmet provided pretty significant protection. These bikes were only about 50cc to 80cc. The 50cc bikes could barely clear the hills. I bet we weren't doing more than 15mph.

Even the barriers were just hay bails. If you ran into them you just hit relatively soft hay.

I have a 2.5 year old daughter now and at 3 everything becomes available to her. Gymnastics, ballet, art, music, etc. I wouldn't put her on a dirt bike if you offered me a ton of cash, but I have no problem with her doing any of these other activities. Yet I've read that gymnastics and ballet lead to more childhood injuries than any other sports.

 

[tripplej]

Each sport has it's own risk. I read somewhere in yahoo that cheerleaders had the highest risk!

So, I guess each situation has to be evaluated on an individual situation...

Still, I do have reservations..

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Each sport has it's own risk. I read somewhere in yahoo that cheerleaders had the highest risk!

So, I guess each situation has to be evaluated on an individual situation...

Still, I do have reservations..

Oh absolutely, and I do think that sticking a child into a high powered race car is another level of danger. The pace isuch faster. Her reaction time needs to be that of a skilled adult and her emotional regulation needs to immense. I just don't see a child possessing either of those. On top of that, those cars are far faster than even motox or other similar child motorized sports. I think that is inherently much more dangerous.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I can't imagine putting an 8-yr old in that position... wow.

 

[tripplej]

And of course, the parents will most likely say, she had the talent to do this, it was something she loved to do and if asked will they do this again, they will say yes..

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Yeah I'm sure they might also say something like "she died doing what she loved". I think that puts a lot of adult emotions and thoughts on a child that I'm not convinced they are capable of.

For what it's worth an 8 years has a recation time a little less than twice that of an adult. 16 year olds are about 1.5 times slower on general tasks but with something like driving, can be more like 3-4 times slower do to inexperience and age. Those are scary thoughts given how important reaction time is to not crashing.