Paul Ewins wrote:
Our laws (Australia) make it fairly clear that it is up to the organizers to make sure people stay out of harms way. If he was in Australia and he had been hit and nothing had been done to try and prevent him standing in a dangerous position then he would have reasonable cause to sue the organizers of the rally. That would pretty much shut down rallying in the state concerned and possibly the country as the chances of getting public liability insurance for future rallies would drop to zero. So one of the first priorities of rally organizers is to make sure that the planned stages allow easy control of spectators. Lots of bunting to mark the no-go areas and marshalls to yell at people who don't take notice.
The laws, and insurance contract, are probably pretty similar here in the States. But if I'm the corner captain, and someone with appropriate credentials shows up, he can go pretty much where he wants as far as I'm concerned. He signed the waiver. If he wears the wrong colors, or he's in some way creating a distraction or impediment to the racing, I'll box his ears. Otherwise, it's his ass. And I'll still kill myself to save him, even if he does something stupid. But I'll curse the SOB all the way down. :-)
I don't usually work rally races, but that's coming. We'll probably both work and run some hill climbs this year, which are pretty similar to rallies, in terms of crowd access to hot areas.
But my point has nothing to do with the laws or even the insurance contract. My point is that /my/ ass is worth more to /me/ than to stand in a place like he chose, for any reason whatsoever. I cannot fathom his choice of shooting location, even though, on second review, it does seem to be a bridge. Of course, I'm a paranoid cuss, too. I can all too well imagine the physics of that corner gone bad.
-- Thanks, DougF (KG4LMZ) -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
