Posted on 06/18/2007 7:45:30 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
SELMER, Tenn. -- A tearful mother of two teenage girls killed when a speeding dragster skidded into a crowd demanded answers on Monday, saying the high-powered car should never have been on a city street.
"Somebody's got to take responsibility for this. I've got to bury my two girls," Darla Griswell said. "They were there just to have fun."
Her daughters, Nicole, 19, and Raven, 15, were among six young people killed by the car when it fishtailed into the crowd Saturday at the Cars for Kids show in Selmer, a small town about 80 miles east of Memphis.
At least 23 other spectators were hurt, many seriously.
Authorities said Monday it would take time to figure out exactly why the car lost control. The district attorney said he has not yet decided whether to bring criminal charges, although that was still a possibility.
Four high-powered dragsters, including one driven by pro drag racer Troy Critchley, were scheduled for the show's popular "burnout exhibition" in which drivers spin their tires to make them heat up and smoke. Hundreds of spectators, unprotected by guard rails, lined both sides of a three-lane highway to watch the show.
Critchley was first off the line, but he lost control and crashed into spectators standing several rows deep in front of a fast-food restaurant.
Amateur video of the crash, broadcast on WMC-TV in Memphis, showed the car's engine revving loudly before the vehicle sped down the highway. After a few hundred feet, the smoking car skidded off the road and into the crowd.
The founder of Cars for Kids, Larry Price, was standing in the road during the burnout, signaling each driver when to start and stop. Drivers usually burn their tires for 20 to 50 feet, Price said, but Critchley went much farther before losing control.
Price said he waved his arms trying to get Critchley to stop, but the car was already past him.
"I was trying to get him out of it, you know," Price said.
Critchley, an Australian who now lives in Wylie, Texas, was treated and released from a hospital and interviewed by authorities. His whereabouts on Monday were not immediately known. A woman who answered the phone Monday at a Goodyear service station in Wylie said Critchley's racing team shares the building, but she said no one from the racing team was around.
A statement on Critchley's Web site Monday said he believed the road had been inspected and approved for the burnout exhibition.
"After a straight start, the car skidded off the road. Mr. Critchley did everything humanly possible to keep the car on the road," the statement says. "Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do."
The statement also says Selmer police went down the length of the highway before the burnout and told the crowd to move back.
Rodger Pitchford, who suffered a broken right leg, chipped vertebrae and bruises in the crash, confirmed that account. Pitchford, 18, said two police cars drove down the parade route and advised spectators to move farther back from the road.
People heeded the warning initially, then moved back in when the car was coming to get a better look, he said.
"It was our choice to stand there," he said. "We shouldn't have been that close. If we had stayed back, I don't think that many people would have been injured because we would have had time to move out of the way."
Griswell said it was clear to her that somebody made a mistake in allowing the exhibition.
"A drag-strip car should not have been on a city street in Selmer," she said between sobs while sitting on a porch swing with friends at her home in Finger, a community just a few miles away from Selmer.
Raven, who would have been a 10th-grader in the fall, was crushed under the race car and died at the scene, Griswell said. Nicole died at the hospital in Memphis.
"Nicole lost one of her legs, and I'm pretty sure she almost bled out before they could get her to Memphis," Griswell said. "They kept giving her blood, but they could never get her blood pressure back up."
The car show, which includes a street fair and a parade of several hundred cars - from hotrods to antiques - raises money for children's hospitals and is held annually in Selmer on Father's Day weekend. It's by far the largest tourist draw in this rural county of 25,000 people.
The wreck also killed Sean Michael Driskill, 22, of Adamsville; Brook L. Pope, 20, of Selmer; Scarlett Replogle, 15, of Selmer; and Kimberly A. Barfield, 17, of Adamsville.
Barfield, an employee of the restaurant, had apparently taken a break to watch the dragster exhibition. Her sister, Destinee Wilson, 8, was waiting for her to join the family for a weekend camping trip when she learned about the crash.
"She was my sister, and she was a good one, too," Destinee said.
When I saw the video of this I couldn’t believe spectators stood along the street with no barrier to protect them where a drag race was going to take place.
The only question that needs to be answered is who approved running a dragster down the street?
I don't know of the county or sponsor deserves any blame. Bad judgment by the driver - he should have known better.
If she can answer the question, "Who told her kids that they could go to the race?" she'll also have her 'Responsible Party'.
SELMER, Tenn. (June 18, 2007) "The entire AMS Racing Team is in deep mourning over the losses and pain suffered this weekend. Our thoughts and prayers are with the individuals and their families during this difficult time. We are shocked and deeply saddened by this tragic accident, which is compounded by the fact that it occurred during a charitable event designed to raise money for disabled children. We offer our deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the individuals that were injured or perished in the accident," team spokesman William Reid said Monday.
The team was asked to attend a charity event in Selmer, Tenn. to help raise money for the Cars For Kids charity and was told the organization had staged a charity car show for the past 18 years in which the drivers performed burnouts. The team sent its racing team to the event to display two racing cars -- a '93 Corvette and a '57 Chevy - and planned to have each vehicle perform an exhibition burnout.
A burnout is a demonstration in which the driver spins the tires to create smoke and noise to demonstrate the ability of the car. The driver involved in the accident, Troy Critchley, is an experienced professional driver who had performed more than a 1,000 exhibition burnouts without incident prior to Saturday.
The team arrived in Selmer on Friday June 15, 2007. On Saturday the team displayed two cars for the public to view, and, after displaying the cars, the crew was instructed to line up with other cars participating in the event. After the parade was completed, Selmer Police Officers blocked off the highway for the cars to perform the burnouts. The team understands that the Selmer Police Chief, Neal Burks, was present and in charge of crowd placement and blocking off the street.
The drivers understood that the roadway had been inspected and approved for the burnout exhibition. Before Mr. Critchley began the exhibition, two Selmer police cars traveled down the left and right of the roadway and instructed the crowd to move back. Mr. Critchley was signaled to start and he began to perform the burnout. After a straight start, the car skidded off the road. Mr. Critchley did everything humanly possible to keep the car on the road, but unfortunately, there was nothing he could do.
Mr. Critchley was taken to the Emergency Room and treated for injuries he sustained in the accident. He voluntarily submitted blood for testing to the Tennessee Highway Patrol and it was confirmed he had no alcohol or drugs in his system. The entire crew remained in Selmer on Sunday, June 17 to cooperate and provide information to Tennessee State authorities investigating the accident.
The team has agreed for the involved car to remain in the possession of the Tennessee Highway Patrol for examination. Mr. Critchley was not arrested nor has he been given any indication he will be charged with a criminal offense. The team is cooperating with the State of Tennessee and is currently investigating a number of factors that may have contributed to the accident including crowd control, safety precautions and the preparation and condition of the roadway.
Source: http://www.troycritchley.com/
I’m with you. I don’t know a lot about dragsters, but I know a bit about big, dangerous, hard-to-control machinery. This sounds like a really, really stupid idea in the first place.
There is absolutely no excuse for this to have happened! Even though this stunt had been going on for years, it was a tragic accident just waiting to happen. May God comfort those involved.
It wasn’t a race. It was a fund-raising event, and it included an exhibition of dragsters.
This is a tragedy no doubt.
It was stupid to do dragster burn-outs on a street surrounded by spectators, no doubt.
However...
I would wager that 99% of the people in the crowd knew that dragsters doing burnouts sometimes lose control. This seems to be a case where everybody assumed that “they” wouldn’t let them do this stupid thing if it really was that dangerous.
The sad thing is “they” don’t exist.
If somebody is planning on doing burnouts on a street that is separated from you only by a painted line, leave.
From the pictures, many folks of all ages were getting close.
If the local authorities didn’t require the organizers to carry liability insurance, the taxpayers may well be on the hook.
How sad to lose TWO children at the same time. So young and so much potential.
One of the sad things about the Nanny State is that people naturally assume that if something is permitted to exist, it must be safe. That is not always the case. There is no substitute for using one’s own judgement.
This was the stupidest stunt I’ve ever seen pulled, and the biggest group of dumba$$es who stood there, made targets of themselves, and watched it happen! Where is the personal responsibility in all of this??
I’m terribly sorry that so many were hurt and killed, but this falls into the catagory of “Hey ya’ll!! Watch this!!”.
“Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.”
Excerpts from the notebooks of Lazarus Long...
I pray for the families of those killed. I also believe that everyone involved in allowing this to happen should be prosecuted. The level of stupidity shown in planning this event takes the cake. Everyone will be screaming for the race car drivers head. But I think they should look at the planners of the event maybe the mayor and also the idiot police officers who supposedly cleared the street before allowing a drag race car to speed down a city street. Again my heart goes out to those who lost these young loved ones.
That doesn’t change anything. This lady should have exercised her parental authority if she didn’t want her kids going in harm’s way.
It’s too bad that the kids had to pay for that parental abdication of responsibility/judgement.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
You absolutely nailed it with that comment. Thanks!
I look at events like this are evolution in action. Not everyone always survives.
The bottom line is that when you see a fellow walking around in archaic-looking clothing with a loaded evolver, don't let him point it at you.
Accidents happen. Anyone with any amount of sense knows that out of control cars can kill bystanders. The viewers chose to be there. They paid the price. Get over it.
I could be way off on this but..
I would imagine the idea was for this driver to More or less “Idle” down the road, and maybe rev the engine to get some flames out of the pipes and bark the tires a bit, And not do a Full on Blast down the road at speed. That driver should have known better than that IMO
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