JULY 22, 2008

The Glock accident

Timo Glock suffered a rear suspension failure at Hockenheim on Sunday and crashed heavily into the pitwall. The rearward impact had little in the way of deflection and so the driver took a lot of the force of the shunt.

Timo Glock suffered a rear suspension failure at Hockenheim on Sunday and crashed heavily into the pitwall. The rearward impact had little in the way of deflection and so the driver took a lot of the force of the shunt.

The Toyota then slewed across the road and came to rest on the grass on the outside of the track. It was clear that Glock had been shaken by the impact. An extraction car arrived on the scene within a minute of the crash but there was no sign of the FIA Medical Car. There were marshals at the car within about 30secs but a driver in such a crash waits for the doctors before getting out of the car. The cars feature rescue seats, which are designed to be taken out of the car with the driver still strapped to it, thus minimising the potential of increasing injury during the extrication process. This is not what happened in Glock™s case.

Timo was helped from the car by marshals and walked unsteadily to a marshals™ post, suffering from back pains. He was then presented with a deck chair.

First of all, what is Timo's condition?

"Timo is fine, thankfully, and that is the most important thing," said the team's George Yamashina. "Obviously it was a heavy impact and he did not get out of the car immediately, so he was taken to the circuit medical centre, as is the normal procedure in these incidents. There was no sign of any injury but he was taken from there to a hospital for further precautionary checks, including X-rays."

Glock stayed in hospital overnight.

"He is a bit shaken by the accident but all the checks have shown he is fine so we are not worried about that," said Yamashina.

The result therefore was not bad, but one has to ask whether the usual procedures were followed - and if not why not?