[DrC]

I think luge is inherently pretty dangerous. There’s no way to build a barrier-free track. See these examples of luge accidents on other luge runs. Barriers are par for the course, if you will. But in most accidents, the rider ends up staying in the track itself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG99ULoWXHU&feature=related

[saganite]

I was watching the ESPN crawler reporting the accident and it said that 12 lugers have been injured there. That sounds pretty high even for a sport this dangerous.

[Yossarian]

In that video (pretty good one, too), I only see one small portion that looks like the "close-by adjacent vertical beams" present on the Whistler course.

It looks like they have a lot of "J-Beams" that hold a fabric cover close to the course, but from what I can tell, they are positioned so that if you fly off the course, you're going to rebound off the fabric first.

Yes, luge is a dangerous sport, but it can be made less dangerous by making smart choices regarding the track design. Those choices should never be infringed upon by environmental concerns, which might have happened here.

[Ciexyz]

The details will all come out eventually.