We were in the front row of the red seats (nosebleed), and watched it happen. He was a big dude and it looked bad from the start. EMTs came out, tried to revive him. They even pulled out the paddles on the field before putting him on a gurney and wheeling him away.

When the game was cancelled, there was a small amount of boos, but most people were just kind of dumbfounded. This was the last thing you expected for an Opening Day, and yes it was disappointing that it happened, but no one was pissed that the game was cancelled.

I suppose car racing has more inherent risk, but I would have been OK not watchin them fast cars turn in circles considerin a guy just died hours earlier…

I reckon that is one way to go out & race after one of their own was blown away during practice.

Also, before we assume car racing is more dangerous than steroids, let’s wait ten years and look at cancer rates for major leaguers who played between 1995 and 2005.

I would bet if Carpenter died as well, they might have cancelled it. Also, I doubt they race if it weren’t driver error that caused the wreck. And I wonder if it was someone more high profile than Paul Dana if they’d have called it. Sick as it sounds, and knowing how close all drivers on a circuit are, or at least the respect for one another, I don’t know if they go on if it were Wheldon, Castroneves, Kanaan, etc. that passed away.

Surprisingly, in the last 20 years, even, there has been a very surprisingly low number of fatal on-track accidents in the major circuits. This is the third for IRL, CART I think had one or two, the one mentioned before in F1, and maybe a couple in NASCAR.

That’s pretty much it. The kinetic energy is dissipated by the shredding of the vehicle. Note that the other driver, the one that Dana hit at 176MPH, spent the night in the hospital and went without a single broken bone. He’ll make a full recovery.

Sad to say, Dana was not the first nor will he be the last racing death at all levels of racing.

If one race is cancelled, then all races must be cancelled from now through the balance of life of the sport. If not, then you run into possible scenarios where races are cancelled for popular drivers, while the dauntless, week-to-week unknowns would find themselves cast aside in favor of green flags.

As for dangers in auto racing vs. baseball:
“Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports … all others are games.” – Ernest Hemingway

They stayed there because the race wasn’t canceled or postponed but I do not think they would have complained if it was stopped.

A good thing to do would have been to cancel the race and pay back the tickets to “respect” the tragedy that happened.

Of course that would have been done if sports were still a sport and not just a way to show to the audience as much sponsors as possible with the excuse of a match/race/etc.

I may be old school but I remember the bad feeling I had when in 1994 they did not stop the Formula One G.P. where died two drivers (Ratzenberger and Senna). I just watched that on TV and I cannot imagine what were experiencing drivers and fans in Imola.

That was really an eye opener on what sports were becoming and now have become.

P.S. Thanks for letting me comment and sorry for my bad english