Holy Cr@p - big crash

[Rocket36]

Subsequent court case...

Reports on the incident were filed by the JAF and race organizers. One of the reports stated that Ota did not wear a fire resistant balaclava as required; which he denied. Also, the report stated that the safety team started fighting fire 20 seconds after the accident, but the reality was the flames of Ota's car were first fought by fellow drivers 50 seconds after the crash while Ota was still trapped inside.

As a result, Ota filed a damages suit for about ¥290 million ($2,500,000 US) against seven organizers for their failure to implement proper safety measures in Tokyo District Court in November 1999. Those held liable included circuit operator, Fuji Speedway, series organizer, Japan Automobile Federation (JAF); the race operator, VICIC (Victory Circle Club) and broadcaster TV Tokyo.

On 29 October 2003 six race sponsors and promoters including TV Tokyo, VICIC and Fuji Speedway were found guilty of gross negligence and were forced to pay ¥90 million ($800,000 US) compensation for pain and suffering on the grounds that the responsible parties had poorly prepared first aid response and used poorly trained race marshals. Ota was satisfied with the outcome. The claim against JAF was rejected as they could not be held responsible.

The judge, Tsuyoshi Ono, ruled that the safety car was driving at an excessive pace of 150 km/h rather than at the safety pace of 60 km/h, causing an accident after it suddenly slowed down and described the "firefighting and rescue preparations were also not up to scratch."

The court decided that organizers neglected their responsibility, as Ota was left in his burning vehicle for longer than the 30 seconds in which he should have been out of the car, and determined the pre-race agreement between Ota and the organizers not to pursue legal action in the event of an accident was unacceptable.

TV Tokyo, despite denying responsibility themselves throughout the case as they did not regard themselves as one of the race organizers, was found guilty of gross negligence for attempting to avoid responsibility for its part in the incident.

Despite his written pledge to organizers not to seek compensation in the event of an accident, which all drivers were required to sign, the judge ruled it as unfair and runs counter to public order and morals. Ono added that the pledge, branded by him as a "death pledge," aims to exempt organizers from responsibility, allowing them to benefit economically from races.

The court ruled of Ota's error as he did not decelerate early enough.

The organizers had failed to take sufficient precautionary measures, such as having fire engines on standby as is required to extinguish fires and rescue drivers in 30 seconds or less.

The success of the lawsuit came from the live TV coverage of the incident which was shown in court.


Post court case...

Shortly after, there has been a documentary film about the incident titled Crash (クラッシュ), released in 2003 as well as the book titled Re-Birth, documenting his struggle to rebuild his life and his body.

A number of improved safety measures were introduced following the accident, including the introduction of a "doctor car" that contained medical and rescue specialists.

Ota has since continued to be involved in motorsport, but no longer on a professional scale and also runs a car tuning and race preparation garage, named Tezzo, specializing in Italian cars.

[Rocket36]

Before and after...

[Yevvy]

**** me! seen this video before, but never read the story behind it

[gareth_oau]

So you did this:

[ youtube] Hh53ciwjopg [ /youtube ]
[ youtube] KVqNO6q5f0E [ /youtube ]

with no spaces?

noooo, I did this [ youtube] h ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS2k0JbOpDQ&feature=related [ /youtube ] (with no spaces)

[velly_16v_cab]

very scary crash, i saw this when i was doing my race course mashalling. Very luckly to be alive!

[Rocket36]

noooo, I did this [ youtube] h ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS2k0JbOpDQ&feature=related [ /youtube ] (with no spaces)

Well that's why yours didn't work then... You're putting a whole URL into a reference for a video. The only part you need from a Youtube URL is the video code, which is after the = and before the & (if there is a &). In this case yours would be:
[ youtube] wS2k0JbOpDQ [ /youtube ] (without the spaces)

[Ben J]

wow. its horrible to know that there are people in those cars, but with all due respect thats quite spectacular. Quite scary as well, gave me chills.

[dylan8]

Wow, crazy crash!
Thanks Rocket for the additional info.

[gareth_oau]

Thanks rocket, understand now.

that method is certainly not intuitive, and quite different to when you post pictures where you paste the entire link between the [IMG] [/IMG] setup

[GoLfMan]

wow scary!

Im just amazed at how there WEREN'T ambulance/fire trucks there sooner. If that happened in Oz I'd like to think he'd be hauled out quicker than that!