Maria de Villotta injured in testing

[Just_a_fan]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ca ... e-18685789

Female test driver drove in to a parked vehicle.

[thearmofbarlow]

The "seriously injured" part keeps me from making the obvious jokes. :\

[ecapox]

This just doesnt make sense. She wasnt injured during the straight line, high speed test, but was injuted when she hit a bus (!) on her way into the garage. How the hell does someone get seriouslty injured, going slowly, in a type of car that routinely survives head on collisions with walls? Only thing i can think of is that when she hit it, from behind, the car submarined and her head smashed right into the bus without the car slowing down at all.

[neilbah]

bus? i heard it was the tail lift of a lorry.. scary

[Callum]

Ecapox, I think you should hold judgement until more information is released. You don't know what speed she hit the vehicle at. It could have been no fault of hers at all.

[CMSMJ1]

F1 cars are OK to crash into walls and whatnot - the crash structures are designed with this in mind. A partial contact with something like a truck/bus - anything else - is bad news.

Hope she is alright [-o<

[Callum]

http://audioboo.fm/boos/871126-breaking ... at-duxford

Hope this link helps.

[Just_a_fan]

This just doesnt make sense. She wasnt injured during the straight line, high speed test, but was injuted when she hit a bus (!) on her way into the garage. How the hell does someone get seriouslty injured, going slowly, in a type of car that routinely survives head on collisions with walls? Only thing i can think of is that when she hit it, from behind, the car submarined and her head smashed right into the bus without the car slowing down at all.

From the updated webpage linked in the OP:

BBC Cambridgeshire presenter Chris Mann, who witnessed the crash, said the car had completed a circuit when it "suddenly accelerated" into the back of the lorry.

"From where I was standing it looked like the helmet took the brunt of the impact," he said.

"Strangely, the car suddenly accelerated into the lorry and the car went careering into the side of the loading board."

Suggests she hit the tail lift. Which won't be good at even slow speeds. And the "accelerated suddenly" bit suggests that the speed wasn't that low either - in a few metres the car could have put on 30-40mph before the impact so she might have been travelling at 60-70mph or more.

[lebesset]

afraid the medical authorities say her injuries are life threatening

[Forza]

According to eye-witnesses, De Villota crashed into a stationary vehicle after locking up her rear-tyres and losing control of the Marussia whilst returning to the pits after completing a single installation lap. Ambulance spokesman: "A woman has sustained life-threatening injuries and has been taken to Addenbrookes Hospital for further care."

[bhall]

This sounds like a fruition of the worst-case scenario for anyone driving an open-cockpit car.

[Forza]

Racecar engineering

This sounds very much like the cars anti stall system engaged at the end of the run. Inexperienced drivers having their first runs in a F1 car can be caught out by this. As they slow to stop the car or make a low speed turn (for example into a garage) they lift off the throttle and let the revs drop. The ECU senses this and sets throttle to around 50% with the car still in first gear resulting in a sudden acceleration such as the one described.

"The car slowed down as you see happens during a grand prix, for it to then be reversed into the pits which was actually a tent. But at the last second it just suddenly accelerated again so by the time it hit the truck, it was doing 30 or 40 miles an hour."

Mann said De Villota, 32, was trapped in the car for a considerable time with emergency services attending her immediately.

"It appeared to me that she wasn't moving for about 10 or 15 minutes. We saw her move her hands after about a quarter of an hour and it took almost an hour for the ambulance (staff) to feel confident to take her out of the car."

Reuters

[Just_a_fan]

It's interesting that it took so long to extract her from the car. I would guess that the medical team aren't one of the usual F1-level teams and so aren't used to dealing with a driver in such situations. The seat is designed to allow extraction of the driver in a "spine-safe" manner.

Perhaps it took a long time to disentangle the car from the lorry and then secure her vitals.

Sounds like a terrible accident and let's hope she makes a full recovery... [-o<

[ecapox]

In 'Merica Lorry = a ladies name. Sometimes a dude's name if his parents hated him at birth.

Thought it was a bus. And i wasnt judging. If i was i would have made some kind of joke about women drivers and all that. She's a professional and a way better driver than me.

Just as i pointed out, prior to news source updates, looks like the car went under the "lorry" and her head was the first thing to impact. Even a 10 mph impact like that would be devastating.

I hope she pulls through. That is such a random, freak, accident...even moreso if it is because the anti-stall kicked in and that is what sped the car up. Does she have experience with cars that have this type of anti-stall system?

[Websta]

It's interesting that it took so long to extract her from the car. I would guess that the medical team aren't one of the usual F1-level teams and so aren't used to dealing with a driver in such situations. The seat is designed to allow extraction of the driver in a "spine-safe" manner.

Perhaps it took a long time to disentangle the car from the lorry and then secure her vitals.

Sounds like a terrible accident and let's hope she makes a full recovery... [-o<

I assume that if there is no necessity to move the driver then it would make sense to leave the driver within the car until the extent of their injuries is assessed.

This is really awful news and I hope she has a full recovery