Slalom4me

Pay attention when you are over the wall in a hot pit lane !

Chuck Buckman, a member the Dale Coyne Racing crew, was over the
wall wandering about in Danica Patrick's pit area as she turned in to
enter her spot. Her vision was blocked by a car and its crew in the
spot behind her's and she would not have been likely to see Buckman
until she was about to strike him.

Buckman wasn't wearing protective headgear. The left front of the
car knocked him into the air and he landed on the rear wheel then fell
to the ground as the car continued into the pit.
Brief ESPN footage of incident and comment by Danica Patrick

Patrick hits crew member in pit lane

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John Shiels

Why is the guy even allow out there with no prtective gear when pit lane is active? Hope he is better and smarter next time, They need a rule change and or enforcement.

redvetracr

I read a report that the guy was a seasoned veteran mechanic with 20 years of experience, the article also said protective head gear was not mandatory during testing/practice...I bet it will be from now on.

jwt1603

I read on another website that they're already putting all the blame on her and the whole woman driver thing.

She's in the spotlight so everything she does is going to be over-analyzed. Tony George and his crew at IndyCar is putting on a lot of pressure to keep her in front of the media and try and make people forget about ChampCar and maybe pull some fans from NASCAR.

WNeal

Lancer033

why is it we always have to make rules to protect people from themselves

Miaugi

Slalom4me

Charles (Chuck) Buckman is Chief Mechanic for the No. 19 Dale Coyne
Racing machine of Mario Moraes for 2008.

He has a long association with IRL racing. In the '90's he was co-owner
of PDM Racing with Paul Diatlovich.
3-time IRL champ Sam Hornish Jr. raced for them in his rookie IRL year
in '00.

(Not sure when Buckman parted ways with PDM Racing but Diatlovich
remains and the team continues to participate in IRL.)

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Bimota Guy

Well, of course. Everyone knows male drivers can see through people, so any one of them would have seen the guy she hit.

fatbillybob

Do worry anytime they try to make something idiot proof they make a better idiot.

gonzalezfj

Because they are too dumb to do it for themselves. At one time Darwin took care of people like that, but now we want everyone to survive, regardless of their suitability for our present-day environment, thus rules are required.

Frank Gonzalez

Bill Hetzel

They certainly don't need anymore rules.
The guy is a veteran that made a mistake, stepped into the car's path.

I've seen just as many people get hit in the paddock as in the hot pit.
You guys want to walk around the paddock with a helmit on at a HPDE?

If you go to a SCCA/NASA race, there are no requirements for helmits or clothing other than long pants and no sandals. And this shouldn't be changed.
When you have a crew license and go into the hot pit, you assume the risk. Just like you do when you do a track day.

Slalom4me

I agree.

What I continue to wait for is for Buckman to look at the video to
aid his memory, then step forward, admit that he screwed up and
state unequivocally that Danica Patrick is blameless.

A joint meeting with Buckman beside Patrick in front of TV and print
media would go a long way towards spiking chatter from the 'haters'
and get the monkey off Patrick's back.

That Buckman hasn't already made some effort in this regard lowers
him in my estimation.

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shooter1951

Maybe it knocked some sense into him like:

"DUHH, don't be wondering around in front of moving race cars!"

Just hope it wasn't at her exense.

The Saint

Yeah......maybe he should've called a press conference from his hospital bed.....

boerio

At Long Beach for the last Champ Car race and for ALMS, we photographers were told no firesuit necessary except on race day.

So it doesn't surprise me that on a practice day that crew members were more in street clothes than anything.

One thing we were definitely told - don't walk up and down pit lane over the wall. If you want to go from one pit box to another, go back over the wall, walk down to where you want to be and then hop the wall again.

Danica's fault? I don't think so.

Jeff

Slalom4me

That would work for me.

Have you seen the spin in the press release displayed at the Dale
Coyne Racing website?
In the same vein, there are reports on the net that Mr Buckman was
walking along and stepped to the right, moving into the path of the
car and then getting hit from behind. For this to be the case, he would
have had to have been walking in the same direction as the car was
traveling for a step to the right to cause him to move into the path of
the car.

Hit from behind? Watch the video again.

Mr Buckman is facing the oncoming car. He is directly in the car's
path, he sees it and jumps to his right towards the pit wall. Too little,
too late! The car clips him and down he goes ...

6Sports reporter Kip Lewis speaks about seeing the incident.
Mr. Buckman is well enough to have already made one statement. My
vote is that he (or his representative) should make another one to
take responsibility for causing the accident. The 'press release' on the
Dale Coyne Racing website should be changed to reflect what is now
known to have happened.

But I am not holding my breath in anticipation.

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Bill Hetzel

Right, I think Coyne should change their press release too.
In the Saturday broadcast, I heard them say thet he walked into the path of the car.

But I also have to say, this wouldn't even be a story if someone else was driving the car.

And those giving Buckman crap about paying attention probably haven't spent time in the hotpits themselves.
The hotpits are a very dangerous place. All it takes is a glance in another direction to miss something coming at you. And these types of distractions and everywhere.
Most crewguys I know go into a higher state of "paying attention" when they walk into the hotpit, I know I do. But you still can get hurt.

I had to go to the wall last year to give a driver, with a bad radio, a signal to pit. As he went by, I turned to watch him go thru turn 1. A CSR on the straight behind me lost it's rear bodywork and wing. While my head was turned, that rear clip came over the wall at 120mph and missed me by 2 feet. Chit Happens.

Wayne O

That is crazy. It seemed to me she was on the correct line to enter her pit box. The guy was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was an unfortunate mishap but I don't feel Patrick was at-fault in any way.

TedDBere

An accident is an accident, that's why it's called an accident.

My guess is that if Danica's view was blocked, then so was Chuck's.

Glad eveyone's still alive. Let's get on to the next topic.