Safety

Safety

GET EDUCATED: Track Owners/Promoters

Jul 6th, 2010

Promoters

It goes without saying that every promoter wants to put a good safe race. It is also true that some track owners and promoters try a little harder than others at making safety the focus. But no track owner or promoter ever wants to see one of their riders leaving in an ambulance. Yet certain track owner/promoter behaviors can increase the likely hood of an injury-causing accident. Some of these behaviors include:

  • Failure to personally inspect the facility and racing surface
  • Broken water pipes, exposed metal fence post, trees and other objects that pose an unnecessary hazard to the riders
  • Failure to develop, publicize, and enforce safety rules
  • Flag meaning and penalty for not obeying them
  • Track entrance and exit procedures
  • Prohibition on cutting the track
  • Acceptable pit behavior (who can ride what and where)
  • Restriction on track access
  • Acceptable behavior by parents and all other participants and guest
  • Failure to properly mark the track surface
  • Failure to allocate a single well-marked track entrance and a separate exit
  • Failure to properly train flaggers and other track officials
  • Failure to insure properly trained medical staff are on hand

Medical Staff

It’s not very often that the medical staff actually contributes to an injury, but it can and has happened. The main ways that emergency personal can contribute to injuries are:

  • Not staying close enough to the track surface causing slow response time
  • Not understanding motocross and the type of injuries that are common with the sport
  • Not having the proper equipment
  • Not fully assessing each rider involved in the crash
  • Not closely inspecting the helmets for signs of significant impact
  • Prematurely moving a rider that has potential head or neck trauma
  • Failure to assess the possibility of internal injuries such as bleeding

Track Conditions

Part of motocross is the rough terrain and physically challenging obstacles. That, along with the competition of other riders is the very heart of the sport,-rider and machine vs. the track and each other. All that said, both rider and promoter should be aware of the constant change in track conditions, and adjust as necessary. Track conditions that are most likely to contribute to accidents are:

  • Severe dust that impairs the rider’s ability to see
  • Over watering jump faces or landings
  • Muddy conditions-either man-made or straight from mother nature
  • “Kickers” on the jump faces
  • “Dry slick” conditions – loose dirt on the surface of a hard packed track

Track Design

It cannot be stressed enough that it is the rider’s and or parent’s responsibility to evaluate the track and other obstacles and determine if the track is appropriate for their skill level. Track designers as well should evaluate the location, design, and difficulty level of the obstacles on each track, to make certain that they stay in line with the intended use of each track. Obstacles should be designed in such a way that will allow a wide range of competition whenever it is possible to do such without creating unnecessary dangers. Again it is the responsibility of the rider to determine which obstacles are within their own ability level as well as the ability of the bike. However, it is still important to consider that the track design can contribute to injury causing accidents by:

  • Incorporating obstacles or jumps that are poorly designed
  • Obstacles that are too close to off-track hazards (trees, fences, or other immovable objects)
  • Poorly spaced double and triple jumps
  • High-speed sections that turn too sharply or in close proximity to other sections of the track

Track Preparation

It is worth saying that it is the riders and or the parent’s responsibility to assess the track and the current conditions along with the obstacles that will be present to determine if they are capable of negotiating the track conditions that exist at that time on the track that they are at. While evaluating the track surface and its ability to contribute to injury-causing accidents, parents, riders, and track officials should consider:

  • The amount of moisture present on the soil
  • The extent of soil preparation (has the track been tilled, plowed, or otherwise groomed, or is it hard packed)
  • The types of soil conditions present (sandy, rocky, hard packed, clay, etc.)
  • Severity of ruts, breaking bumps, and acceleration bumps

NOTE: Ruts, braking and acceleration bumps, and other rough conditions are to be expected and considered normal. Many experienced riders consider them a major plus when deciding where to ride. Riders that expect to compete at Regional and National events must learn to negotiate virtually every type of rough condition. Therefore it is unreasonable to expect tracks to be free off ruts, braking and acceleration bumps and other such conditions. Rather, riders must be aware of these conditions, which often change from one moto to the next, and change their riding style and line selection accordingly.

Track Maintenance

Track conditions and track maintenance go hand in hand. Riders and or their parents should assess the track each time before they ride so that they are aware of the level of preparation – then they can make a conscious decision about whether or not they or their child should ride. Whoever might be prepping the track should always be aware that their decisions will affect the rider’s ability to negotiate the track. Track maintenance most often contributes to injury accidents when:

  • Jump faces and landings are over-watered
  • Severe dust and inadequate irrigation is available to reduce the dust
  • Hard-packed, dry, dusty surfaces are over-watered
  • Severe kickers are left in the jump faces

Flaggers

Poorly trained, performing, positioned, and/or poorly supervised flaggers have the potential to contribute immensely not only to injury causing accidents, but also to the severity and frequency of these accidents. The most common ways that flaggers contribute to injury accidents and death are:

  • Leaving their flagger stand during a race
  • Not paying attention to what is happening in their assigned area
  • Not knowing what their responsibilities are
  • Being distracted with cell phones, iPods, unnecessary conversations
  • Becoming a spectator of the entire race instead of watching their assigned area responsibly
  • Not knowing how to properly flag to warn on-coming riders, downed riders, EMS and track personnel