[fuzzybutt]

First rule in life, God gave you fear for a reason. Whatever you attempt to do if you are afraid then do not do it until you are no longer afraid.

[DoughtyOne]

First you have to determine if it’s reasonable fear or not. If it is, then by all means, avoid the action and you are right.

Many of us have unreasonable fears concerning some matters. Those unreasonable fears can cause us to put up walls or slam on the brakes when we shouldn’t.

Sadly, this wasn’t one of those cases. He had reasoned fear, and I’m sorry he didn’t listen to it.

[Conspiracy Guy]

self fulfilling phrophesy

[truthkeeper]

Terribly sad.

[HangnJudge]

Luge racing is a form of High Risk Behavior

The Rule of Thumb in High Risk Behavior is,
if you are Afraid of what you are Doing - Don’t

Motorcycling and Sky Diving are similar in this respect
Fear binds your Thought and Reactions

You must be Fearless and Cautious at the Same Time

[FrdmLvr]

Someone posted a paper on Friday night in a FR thread on the accident that was published by the company who built the track or by the IOS and how proud they were that they left such a small footprint on the environment which ultimately made it so dangerous because they built the steel pillars too close to the track. I neglected to grab it; can anyone repost or ping me with it? Thanks.

[trumandogz]

Hate to be cynical in the wake of this young man’s death, but dad may by setting the table for a lawsuit against the IOC.

And if he thought it was too dangerous, why is it he elected to race down the track?

[Jmouse007]

Lets get real, everyone doing the luge takes their life into their hands every time they go down the run. It is an inherently dangerous and DEADLY “sport”. That said, the idiots who put up a line of OPEN, UNWALLED, UNSHEILDED STEEL GIRDERS just 3 feet or so off the side of the track after a dangerously tight turn should go to jail... talk about lack of foresight!

[Carley]

The young man supposedly had at least six trial runs down that same track immediately preceding the practice run.

He had slid down that track about twenty times in all.

It’s no crime to withdraw and he should have done so rather than whine to his father who was thousands of miles away and unable to make a judgement on his behalf.

The father was a luger for the Soviets, long time ago.

[FlyVet]

Luge, bobsled, downhill, ski jumpers...just a different breed of people who have the nerve to do such things. I would imagine they all have fear, because they've all seen and experienced bad crashes, but their egos and desire to excel overcome the fear.

I remember decades ago watching the ski jumpers in one of the events, a day when they had severe crosswinds, overcast and snow in the air, so they couldn't see the landing. (I used to snowmobile and when it's overcast like that you just can't see the contrast, the bumps in the trail, so you have to slow way down, unless you're crazy).

Anyway, the first several jumpers lost it and crashed in a heap like a rag doll. What must go through the next jumper's mind when he sees the first few jumpers carted off on a backboard? But yet, down the ramp they went. That takes a lotta nerve.

[Euker]

Without fear, there is no courage.
Courage is the ability to proceed through one’s fear.

[R. Scott]

“Scared” now equals “Terrified”? Sure glad I’m not a journalist.

[Asfarastheeastisfromthewest...]

So... it seems that there are many who may be sympathetic for the young man but are still willing to suggest that he has to carry some responsibility for it himself – it’s a risky sport and he willingly engaged in it, he knew the risks etc etc. Sorry but I’m not buying any of it. There is absolutely no way that young Nodar or anybody else’s body should have been able to leave the confines of the track period. If it was possible (and this obviously is now confirmed to be the case), than the design was insufficient for dealing with a worst case scenario... end of issue. It’s called insufficient design margins. This was obviously a tragic event but I would not call it an accident in the truest definition of the word since it was totally preventable....it was a tragic outcome that simply exposed a design flaw. Like so many other things, it seems that design engineers are not allowed to apply reasonable margins of safety on designs until somebody gets killed. Quite often it is the non-engineering types that get involved in these projects and they often kibosh safety measures because of costs or other reasons. Other things can be compromised but not safely. The idea of comparing the risk of a high speed crash where the luger in a protective suit falls off a sled, rattles around in the track sliding at high speeds and then eventually friction slows him down is NOT on the same level as the risk of being able to leave the track and hit a steel post planted a mere three feet from that track on the outside of the curve. So, what we had here was a scenario where it WAS possible to have a series of circumstances that made it possible to leave the track, there was NO containment to bring him back to the track once he left it AND once out, there was NO clear path for him to slow down without meeting a deadly obstacle. Unless someone here can successfully make the argument that he was trying to get himself propelled off the track, than in my view he has zero responsibility for his death and 100% of it lies elsewhere.....the designer or somebody who overruled the designer.

Some of this reminds me of the talk that ensued after the Siberian tiger managed to get out of its pen at the San Francisco Zoo a few years ago...seems to me that there were those that tried to lay the blame on the guy who got mauled to death because he apparently had been ‘teasing the tiger’. The sad reality was that the wall was simply too low and regardless of how sick it would be to tease a tiger, there is no way it should have been able to get out. With the wall too low, it was going to happen sooner or later. As I said, it always seems to take a death before something gets done and no doubt, changes will be made in the future. My guess that we are going to see tubular containments on these corners on future tracks. It’s just very sad that a young man had to die for that to happen.

[aruanan]

Whatever you attempt to do if you are afraid then do not do it until you are no longer afraid.

Or do it until you are no longer afraid.