Post-racing rush can hurt

Sheldon Williams, Gleaner Writer

Hilary Jardine, OD, one of the pioneers of motorsport in Jamaica and former head of the Jamaica Race Drivers' Club, has admitted that attending car-racing events may have a potentially dangerous post-race psychological effect on spectators.

He argued that it eggs on some motorists, triggering an adrenaline rush which motivates them to speed when driving home from the event.

No one will ever know the mood in the motor vehicle on Easter Monday, when the Nissan Sunny being driven by Rodney Drummond crashed on the Martha Brae overpass, near Falmouth in Trelawny. The results are well-known - Drummond, his partner Tanesha Small and their children Tia and Ronesha all died.

The Gleaner reported that the family was coming from a motor race and Drummond overtook a line of traffic, slamming into a minibus traveling in the opposite direction.

However, Jardine insisted that safety messages are consistently disseminated at Dover Raceway to put persons in the frame of mind to drive safely.

DON'T SPEED, ITS DANGEROUS

"One of the things that we always say, 'Race at Dover and not on the road'. Every time we put on a race meet we try to slip in that little something into it just to remind the general public, 'Don't speed, it's dangerous'. If you want to speed, speed at Dover, but when you are on the road follow the traffic laws," he said.

This continues until the spectators are heading out of the venue. "Even when the race meet finishes and spectators are leaving, the commentator will say, 'Take your time, don't block, don't block each other, take your time and drive out and get out safely'. There's no need to hurry and things like that he (the commentator) will say to people to get them in the safest frame of mind," Jardine said.

He emphasised that safety is a major concern to those involved in motor racing. "In motor racing, safety is one of our primary responsibilities to the competitors, and we pass it on to the spectators as well. Safety is a very very important thing, we take it very seriously. That's why we have a lot of rules and regulations that drivers must conform to, and a lot of it is based on safety," he said.

THE NEED FOR SPEED

"You have to understand that most people that go to motor racing love the sport and they love the speed and excitement and all of that and when you go and watch these things some of us will want to let her hair down, so to speak, or take a risk. That is a human element; that's how it is. In anything that you do, that's how human beings are. That will make you put your foot down and that one moment that will make you put your foot down, that is how you get involved in accidents, and such is life," Jardine said.

Jardine reasoned that some spectators might not immediately act on the adrenaline rush and speed after they have attended races, but other contributing variables may be the factors that lead them to accelerate on the roads. One of these is being overtaken. "Chances are he leaves the race track excited after a wonderful day of racing and is driving home peacefully and someone passes him and he says to himself, 'I'm not going to let that happen', and he just follows," Jardine said.

He put it down to basic human competitiveness. "That is how we are. It has nothing to do with the actual racing. What that person may do and trigger him to follow it may not trigger someone else. The moment he goes after him, an accident occurs, and that's life. Things we can control, others we can't," Jardine said.

Interestingly, Jardine said that for the most part, motor racers don't race on the roads; they're the ones who drive safely.

"Would you believe me if I tell you a motor racer hardly gets into an accident on the highway or on the road? When you see someone driving very carefully, he is a motor racer. They don't speed; they prefer to go to the track and do that. There are odd occasions when it may happen, but not generally," Jardine said.

ADRENALINE RUSH

And it seems that the adrenaline rush may also hit those heading to the races. On Labour Day 2011 four persons were also killed, this time on the Spring Hill main road in Trelawny.

The Gleaner reported that Dennis Lindsay of a St James address was driving towards Discovery Bay, on his way to a race meet. He tried to overtake a line of vehicles travelling in the same direction, colliding with a Toyota motor car travelling in the opposite direction.

In addition to the four persons killed in that accident, four others were also injured.