Officials to probe Tomizawa death

Saw it on Eurosport. Terrible to see, especially when you race yourself. Makes your realize how fragile life is!

Must say that the Marshalls appeared more focused on clearing the track than taking care over a seriously wounded rider. I hope their obvious lack of training didn't contribute to his injuries.

Posted: 07/09/2010 at 14:40

It was obvious that the race should have been stopped immediately and that Tomizawa should not have been moved. The marshals threw him around like a rag doll. I would have thought that they should be better trained than that. i'd be very worried if I were racing and thought that I would be treated like that. Such treatment can turn relativelt simple injuries into major ones.

Posted: 07/09/2010 at 14:55

if you watch the video on liveleak they actually drop him.

Posted: 07/09/2010 at 14:59

Race should have been stopped, absolutely no doubt, horrific incident, I couldnt believe after been hit by 2 bikes they thought he would be ok to move, then the muppets go and drop the stretcher

Posted: 07/09/2010 at 16:43

The marshals were useless, but the real idiots were the medics. They were the ones who rolled Redding onto a stretcher and who carted Tomizawa off like a sack of meat.

Posted: 07/09/2010 at 19:15

What we need to remember is that these marshals do, in the most part, a fantastic, VOLUNTARY job. If these motorsport bodies thought about paying people to do this job, they might just get better suited people to do it. Marshals play an extremely important role in all manner of motorsport. I'm certainly not saying that the marshals weren't at fault or weren't lacking in their ability to correctly assess and deal with the situation, I'm merely pointing out that they are under a huge amount of pressure and get comparitively little in return for their work. In my opinion, marshals should not be put into the position where they need to move an injured competitor. This task should be left, solely, for the trackside medical staff. God knows, there are enough ambulances and paramedic crews at these events, why make volunteer marshals do it? It's unfair and, as we've seen, extremely dangerous!

as with most things, rules don't change until someone dies... Maybe this is what was needed to change the way these motorsport bodies work, sad and wasteful, though it was. 

Posted: 07/09/2010 at 21:36

 Very sad to see the death of a fine young racer like Shoya. I think the trackside medics didn't do any favours for themselves with their behaviour to the riders involved. The stretchers they used looked like the ones in use in UK where they split in two so you can slide both parts under a riders body then connect it together again without rolling the body uneccassary. The medics just rolled Scott Redding onto a stretcher without any thought to be careful. I didnt see Shoya actually put on a stretcher so wont make assumptions there, but as for marshals dropping the stretcher this may have looked awkward, but walking or running through gravel traps can lead to a stumble or trip anytime it happens at British circuits too. I would think Shoya's injuries so severe that the stretcher mishap would make no difference to his outcome. I hope some good can come out of this tragedy whether a safety car should have been deployed so riders were treated with some compassion before being removed from the track or whatever. The general medical treatment there was less professional than a bike track day here in UK

Posted: 07/09/2010 at 23:12

Yeah, they did deal with it really badly. It was obvious from what we all saw that him and scott reading where both seriously injured and they just shoved them on a stretcher and fumbles them out the way. And the fact that the fat fingered morons actually dropped the poor guy is just a disgrace, added tot hat teh fact that neither of them should have even been moved like that in the first place.

Posted: 07/09/2010 at 23:24

They are facing manslaughter charges. Rightly so. He should not have been moved by them, only the medical team should have that authority. The race should have been red flagged, no question.

I do think that Dorna should seriously reconsider racing there next year.

It was horrible crash.

R.I.P Shoya San.

Posted: 08/09/2010 at 09:27

Anyone with basic first aid knows that you never move a person with possible spinal or head injuries, i haven't seen the crash but from what i heard this was a very possible scenario. Fleg flag and proper medical attention were a minimum. This is the problem with millions invested in TV rights and time slots, R.I.P. Shoya, we'll miss you smiley face

Posted: 08/09/2010 at 10:09

RIP Tomizawa.

I'm sure I heard a statement from the circuit sometime that day saying that they didn't want to red flag it because they thought that more riders would crash when/if they suddenly saw a red flag - does anyone else remember this? I thought this was bizarre to say the least.

I would've assumed / hoped that there was a doctor / medical person with both riders ASAP; especially Tomizawa because of the big labelled crash-bags that were placed around him; so I would also assume that it was their call whether to move the poor guy or not? Saying that though, the way in which Scott Redding was quickly rolled onto his stretcher seemed a little hasty to say the least, and I don't recall seeing a doctor / medical professional next to him when this was done. 

Without being there and without any experience of trackside marshalling or medical care I thinks its probably more than a little harsh to judge / speculate, but from eurosport things did seem to be done quite rapidly given the severity of the crash etc.

Posted: 08/09/2010 at 12:39

From my experience it is likely that the marshals on the scene would not be making the call.  It would be a Dorna official giving instructions via race control, usually countermanding concerns from the scene .  Again in my experience they do not want the race red flagged, ever, but may have gambled to far with Tomizawa...I hope there are concequences for them and their decision making!!

Posted: 08/09/2010 at 16:04