Tragic Accident at Titiwangsa
 

Dear Racers,

I am very very sad to share this news with you that happened today, 19th Dec 2010. It happend after the ORCA BL Championship Race.

A little girl fell from the drivers stand to the ground below. I was on the left side of the stand driving, while driving, I could glance to the lower right end of my eye and I vaguely saw something falling to the ground, with a big thump immediately. Immediately I stopped and realize that a little girl had fell to the ground from the stand.

Till this moment, I still have the sight of the little girl laying there on the ground without any motion. Her father was no where to be found. Only after all of us shouted for the father, he came over and carried the child and I can only see the girl's eye open without any sense of sight with the arms and legs dangling as her father rushed to the car to send her to the hospital. I cannot forget the sights. It still strikes me till this moment.

I am posting to urge RCAC, and all of the RC member community to try and make a difference to the situation as I believe we can prevent all these from happening. The wooden stand made it easier for us drivers to see farther, but at the same time, it made the railing shorter and easier for a child to climb and sit on the railing. Which is what I believed caused this accident. We should have added another railing on top may be by one level to compensate for the increase in the standing height. While I believe we should ask all RC goers to disallow ALL Children to be on the stand no matter what it may be. I believe this is the fundamental problem. Children has no sense of fear and they may not know whats right and wrong.

I hope RCAC and all can come together and make a difference to this and I sincerely hope the little girl will be well and not too much harm has come to the girl. If anyone in the RC community know this family, would appreciate if you can post on this thread to update us on the situation of the girl.

Thank you.

agree....

sedih...cuba kita bayangkan budak tu anak kita....
fuh...sadis rasanya.... iktibarnya kalau sesapa napak
hal2 cam tu tolong tegur dan larang cam anak kita sendiri
sebab kalau perkara buruk belaku depan mata kita aduss
sangup ke kita lihat dan kanak2 itu anak kita atau kawan2 kita..

So sorry to hear this. It's the saddest news I have ever read on this forum. I'm not one to tell people how to do their jobs, or run their businesses or spend their associations' funds, but I totally agree with Mike that safety has to be given more thought on some of the drivers stands. I've been climbing rocks since 2003 and have seen many young kids climb and I can say that different kids react to height differently. Many of the very young ones have absolutely no fear at all! High or low, ropes or no ropes, it's all the same to them!

At the RC Planet stand, my son (3 years old at the time) went up the stand but was unable to look down at the track because all the sponsors' signs obstructed his views, so he lost interest in going there quickly. He'll be maybe 7 or 8 years old before he is tall enough to look over the boards. This could be a good idea. Also maybe some "No Climbing" signs on the back of those boards might help too. For drivers with young kids, perhaps the first safety measure we should consider is to educate them on the dangers.

Only issue I see is access to a good view for disabled drivers or young racers. I can't think of a 'perfect' solution that is safe, fair, easy to maintain and foolproof so something's got to give somewhere, but personally, I don't think it should be safety.

My hands was still trembling when I reached home yesterday after witnessing the incident. It is something that no one would hope to see and definitely do not want to happen. I was at the drivers stand when it happened.

What i guess happened was, the little girl used the rungs on the railing to climb up and eventually lost her balance and fell over.

To add on to Mikecan8 and ABGDjr suggestions, not only to raise the level of the hand rail, but also to either to cover the rungs, the portion below the hand rail completely so that children cannot climb or to replace it with all vertically placed rods instead of any horizontally placed rods.

Either way something needs to be done. The railing currently is lower then waist height compared to an adult. This is dangerous and any adult can fall over easily. So if it was not this little girl then it could be an adult like one of us who gets slightly overly excited and leaning over the railing and.......

I totally agree, but just want to reinforce your earlier point that this should not be the only measure. Titiwangsa is a public park so many of the spectators are not racers. Many of them are just joggers - and some of these are very young ones who can outrun their parents.

Goodness me! Is the child ok? Does anyone know?

Accident involved children can happen anywhere...even in our house or playground.

My sympathy goes to that little girl and her family...really hope she is fine at this moment.

Actually I believe RCAC put the wooden stand there just to accommodate the need of short driver like me...and not to give us far clear view since the tower is high enough. Before this a short drive like me has a difficulty to adjust because my elbow will touch the railing.

even if we dismantle the wooden stand I think safety issue for children up there still exist because they are not suppose to be there. Maybe we can prevent this if we can put fence along the railing.

I use to play at titiwangsa...a lot of children climb the driver stand to see the car from there. I hope after this we take the initiative and ask them to leave and watch from the paddock

I pray for the girl to be ok..

I would like to suggest to build an entrance gate/door before going up the staircase on both side, make sure the sliding lock high enough from the reach of clildren (ex: adult chest height) + no children allowed signboard. Every racer responsible to lock before and after using the stand .

At the track entrance gate also should put up 'players/racers only, no spectator allowed'.

This is my thought...thanks...

it just pure ignorance from the parents... even last time i did saw, a father holding the child 3 yrs old. what he does he swings the child pass the divider while the 1/10 gp cars are zooming across. the child laugh so happily. what if accident happens the car skid & hit her by the head... it be a pool of blood then..

Stupid Parents! No sense at all! I hope the girl is ok. I hate it when an innocent child is hurt.:(

Hope she get well soon.

So sad that this happen to the little girl. I have always tell the person who has the authority to warn the people who brought their kids and let them sit on the fences to watch the cars zooming by the race track and it's dangerous if their kids fell to the track. Hope the authority will do some safety precaution at the track and lets not have this incident happen again.

Mike T

sitting on the fence is very dangerous. what if he/she falls on the ground with high speed passing car.

the best solution is audience seats, but that would requires lots more budget from DBKL.

so sorry to hear this, hope nothing serious and she will be ok.
Spectators and parents should be more 'safety concious'