<p>I just heard on TV that the starting point of the luge runs will be moved to slow down the speed, and there will be some redesigns around that terrible turn. Too late…</p>
<p>They will raise the wall…</p>
<p>[Vancouver</a> 2010 luge track to reopen with raised wall](<a href=“Home | Vancouver Sun”>Home | Vancouver Sun)</p>
<p>The track’s designer, the architect Laurenz Kosichek, in a quote that might come back to haunt him, told Canadian television last month that before starting work on the project he “knew as much about bobsled and luge as probably anyaverage person does which is next to nothing”.</p>
<p>[Luge</a> tragedy raises questions over competitors’ safety in Vancouver | Sport | guardian.co.uk](<a href=“http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/feb/13/olympics-luge-death-safety-concerns]Luge”>Luge tragedy raises questions over competitors' safety in Vancouver | Winter Olympics 2010 | The Guardian)</p>
<p>who the heck hired this guy?</p>
<p>i just watched the video. i was shocked to see the low wall height and the number of steel poles immediately adjacent to the luge. i know it’s a dangerous event just by its nature, but this course design seems really flawed.</p>
<p>EK - wow. I have no words.</p>
<p>I think it would require more than padding. What kind of padding could you use that would do much in the face of 90 mph speeds? Nets maybe, but those require more space. Even if the designer knew nothing about luge/bobsled, a halfway competent engineer could figure out the forces involved and design accordingly. Also, don’t they test those things and build scale models? Heck, even an average drivers knows when someone has sloped a curve the wrong way.</p>
<p>[Probe:</a> Olympic Track Didn’t Cause Luger’s Death – Olympics – 2010 Winter Olympics from Vancouver FanHouse](<a href=“http://olympics.fanhouse.com/2010/02/13/probe-olympic-track-didnt-cause-lugers-death]Probe:”>http://olympics.fanhouse.com/2010/02/13/probe-olympic-track-didnt-cause-lugers-death)</p>
<p>I am not going to watch this event. It’s not entertaining to me to see people seriously hurt or killed all in the name of sport. Then again, I think boxing should be outlawed as its primary goal is to cause a concussion.</p>
<p>That “probe” is pathetic. Just to get the word out there that it wasn’t the fault of the course, it was driver error. And what about the unprotected steel pole? You know, goal posts on football fields used to be on the goal line. It took many years before they put padding on those posts and moved them (make that, “it”) to the back of the endzone to reduce the chances of a dangerous collision.</p>
<p>The “probe” is probably the beginning of damage control. I hope the architect has a good liability insurance policy.</p>
<p>I also wonder about the practice of restricting athletes from training facilities, in order to give the home country’s team an advantage.</p>
<p>[Luger</a> who died told father he was terrified of Whistler track - Fourth-Place Medal - 2010 Olympics Blog - Yahoo! Sports](<a href=“Sports News, Scores, Fantasy Games - Yahoo Sports”>Sports News, Scores, Fantasy Games - Yahoo Sports)</p>
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<p>I hate that there’s already been a so-called determination that it was the athlete’s “fault.” It’s rather obvious that they could have made the wall higher <em>before</em> he died, instead of waiting until afterwards. He was only 21, for God’s sake. As someone has pointed out, maybe he did make a slight error, but the consequence of an athlete making the kind of mistake he did should not be death.</p>
<p>The “defense” put forward by the Olympic officials is a joke. Many people, including competitors, claimed that the track was so dangerous if someone made a mistake he might die. The “defense” is that the young Georgian made a mistake and so he died? </p>
<p>Is that the rule now? If you make a mistake and die officials are not responsible, because no one could foresee that competitors competing just on the edge might from time to time go over the edge?</p>
<p>Sure, let’s blame it on the one who cannot defend himself because he is DEAD! Unbelieveable! Even if the athlete was not as fast or experienced as the rest of the pack, he was deemed qualified to compete in these Games. The games’ organizers are well aware of the fact that unlike in those World Cup events, here there will be barely qualified Jamaicans competing against the uber-qualified Germans. Either set the qualifying bar higher or adjust the track conditions to the common denominator so EVERYONE is safe!!</p>
<p>Even the BEST in every sport will occasionally make a mistake. Look at speed skating. It seems in every Olympics, a gold medal favorite will take a tumble. But they don’t die. It is a given that someone will make an error in luge, whether they are the least or most prepared. The track should be designed to take that fact into account.</p>
<p>If we going to get rid of luge event, then how about whole Winter Olympics? All events at Winter Olympics are extremely risky. Did you see figure skaters especially when guy is holding girl up in air using one arm and all those jumps? I saw few years ago, when girl got dropped from this position and at my horror her head was bumping up from ice just like a ball, just like in scariest movie. She ended up OK, could have been easily killed. But skaters said that wearing helmet will increase instances of falling. I believe them, because wearing helmet not alwasy saves you. but it makes you very uncomfortable (even immature like me just rollerblading recreatinally). There is no answer. After they made track safer, some lugers complained about it being boring. These ppl are there because they choose to do so, they are getting huge kick out of it, they cannot imagine their lives without it, they know all the dangers and being trained in dangerous situations. We cannot deprive them of what they are looking for, who we are to do so?</p>
<p>12 riders were killed over an 18 month period in '08-'09 in equestrian eventing. I have no idea how many horses died, but I would imagine it was just as many. If we are going to get rid of dangerous sports, there are lots that would go before the luge. </p>
<p>Having said that, I see no reason for a track to be so dangerous. If only 50% of the sliders can make it around a turn, then it should have been changed before the death.</p>
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<p>We can’t evaluate that unless we know the denominator. How many people do equestrian eventing?</p>
<p>I don’t say we should get rid of luge, but I do say officials erred in holding the event on this particular extremely dangerous track.</p>
<p>Seriously? They’re attributing this to the athlete’s mistake? I don’t care if the guy had never been on a luge before. If there are simple, basic technological fixes to improve safety like raising the wall, they should have been made.</p>
<p>Safety isn’t supposed to be something that’s reserved for (mythical) perfect actors. It’s supposed to be designed into the equipment to minimize the damage from ANY accident.</p>
<p>Steering columns used to be, basically, one long stick between the steering wheel and the front axel. This meant that during a front-end collision, the column would be forced backwards and impale/kill a driver wearing a seat belt. The solution wasn’t to say that drivers should be more careful and avoid front-end collisions. The solution was to put a collapsible coupling in the middle of the steering column so it can’t impale the driver, no matter what errors he makes.</p>
<p>If people are flying off the track on the curves, then they need to put a roof on the tube. Period. There’s unavoidable risk, and then there’s negligent failure to minimize risk. This was the second. I’ve enjoyed watching this event in the past, but I’m done. I don’t care to see any snuff films.</p>
<p>There must be a way to make the Luge safer through better track design. I just can’t imagine why this track was designed with those large steel poles so near where one can fly off the track and they didn’t even bother to pad the poles. It makes no sense. They also could put up a clear plastic shield at the top of the side so if a racer ends up that high they won’t fly out of the track yet spectators could still see them.</p>
<p>Speaking of the Luge, I find it to be a very boring event to watch. Almost every run by every racer looks exactly the same except for the occasional bumping of the side and the difference between the first place and one placing way in the back is imperceptible without looking at the timer. I’m sure it’s absolutely thrilling for the racer but very boring for the observer. It’s different than something like the side by side short track ice skating racers and even different than something like the giant slalom where one can perceive more of a unique run.</p>