Right, so many SOP's, or at least SOP's at my department that would have me thanking God this did not turn out much worse along with me being excused from the dept. and having to hang up my turnouts for the last time.
Not trying to be an armchair QB here, because its hard to say without being part of it, the events that unfolded to lead up to this and who is in the wrong to assume liability here, if any one person, but I can talk from 13 years of being on the Fire department and about 30 years of on and off the track how certain protocols are put into place and should be followed to avoid situations like this.
Not just at the track, on the street as well because every day it becomes harder to respond running 10-30 without common courtesy for others lives and common sense from outside sources.
10-30 in my area is code for high speed, in a hurry to arrive on scene or to hospital, also means dangerous/high risk situation. We will ask dispatch if we need to run 10 -30 traffic or not, especially if there is any open for interpretation situation.
Aka, people not aware they should pull to the right off the road as much as possible in a safe spot and come to a stop, not blocking a drive/entrance or cross street. Do not chase or outrun the responding units. If sitting still at a light or all the way to the left and unable to pull to the right slow down and stay where you are making your movement and path of travel as predictable as possible, if in heavy traffic stop and go, stay where you are, or if possible move the right as much as possible to allow an opening for units to get through.
Check your mirrors and surroundings to understand and anticipate the path of travel by emergency units.
And then the units themselves..... #1 rule we have is drive in a manner that allows the apparatus to come to a complete stop at and before any intersections. There are many other protocols we have in place, but that is one of the number 1 rules now.
Now this is a race track so without proper warning and notifications, or signals.....I mean dang. Again not sure what happened here....but there was some breakdown in communication to the racers and not enough aggressive warning or notice.
Like maybe someone by the crossing at the barriers waving red and yellow flags or something.......watching for bikes coming down that straight.
Something to reduce the chances or mistakes or accidents, but we all know accidents will happen but if they do, checks in place to avoid life ending mistakes.
Which nobodies life was ended as a result of this, but definitely not making light of the situation because with the right precautions in place this probably would have just been a serious pucker moment for both of those riders, but not a serious wreck either.
Not sure really if I am entitled to any say in this, but in my mind the goal should be what did we learn from this, that #1 two riders could have been killed so how do we go from could have been to two riders killed to, at worst could have maybe had a close call with running off track and slowly dropping the bike at the most, or having to pull off track and stop. At the least them crashing in the manner they did is what happened here, at the worst side of what could have happened here is two dead riders and a probably some injuries to persons in the ambulance from impact by two bikes at 100+
