When Instructing goes wrong...My story from the right seat
09-06-2014, 08:46 AM
#1
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When Instructing goes wrong...My story from the right seat
Warning... LONG STORY... SOME HUMOR... Some Reality that bites.
The article in Road & Track is very timely for me... I read it on a Wednesday and found myself hanging upside down in a students car the following SATURDAY...
As I posted elsewhere, I was involved in my first major incident from the right seat on August 16th at Summit Point.
I was instructing with a club at Summit Point Raceway park main circuit. I had an HPDE1 student and was not, repeat not driving a car. It was a last minute fill-in as they were short staffed and I didn't have time to prep the focusST. So my student had a 2003 BMW 330 with 192K miles on it. BONE stock. We had a great time all day working throw the process of getting the line down and finding his braking points. This guy was a true joy to work with and zero issues. He knew the limits of the car and was comfortable with my instruction.
Parked next to me was another guy in a Lotus Elise. We got to chatting and throughout the day really enjoyed talking cars and high performance driver's ed. He is an HPDE2 student and according to him, his instructor had basically disappeared on him after the first morning session. At around 3 PM he asked if I would go out for a session with him. I was skeptical that I would be able to fit into the carbon fixed back seats in the car, but I did, so we adjusted the harnesses and I went off and found my communicator device I had given my student. When our session was called, we hopped in, strapped in and off we went. I was wearing my Pyrotec Helmet and my HANS device, sitting in an FIA approved Lotus specific seats, and using Schroth 6 point harnesses.
2/3rd of the way through our session the student was picking up speed and cleaning up lines with my help. Summit Point Raceway park main circuit has three high event corners, one being Turn 3, one being turn 9 and one being turn10. Only turn nine causes me concern as an instructor and I had mentioned that to my HPDE1 student in the first session of the day. T9 is where my group 2 student, with new found speed from cleaning up the entry to T5-8 would enter to early, pinch the apex and find himself out at the far edge of the pavement. He was fine and would have had enough space to stay on track or at worst put to tires off. Had he stayed on the throttle it would have been a teachable moment we could have cleaned up the next lap. Instead, He lifted. I felt it immediately at the first "breath" of the throttle and said "GAS", and then he lifted off all the way and the car rotated at a very high rate of speed. Into the tire wall on the right side of the track we went. The car struck the tire wall, spun to the right side, got tangled in a bundle of tires and flipped.
Yes, I said flipped.
These are small cars. When we were sitting in the pits I noticed my left elbow touching his right. I'm 225# and he was probably 195#. Not small guys to say the least... So now we are upside down and the car is still "on". I tell him to calm down and turn the car off. He is in panic. We cut the ignition off and then… Silence. I'm hanging by the harnesses and trying to figure out how we are going to get out. Sniffing for gas, oil, or smoke. Nothing. He was simply overcome by the gravity of our situation and he was terrified. Within less 30 seconds the corner worker was asking if there were injuries. Within less than a minute the track had rolled two ambulances, the fire engine, the boom truck, a roll back, a wrecker, and three trucks full of people. Three previous redflag incidents weren't helping the nerves of all who were running this event. And here I am, upside down in a car, student who wasn't even mine, at an event I wasn't even supposed to be at... I felt a lot like Dante from the Movie "Clerks"!
Sitting upside down it dawned on me that my student was not capable of getting out on his side because of the disorientation and the shock of crashing his prized possession. I wasn't getting out because my door and window were blocked by grass and tirewall. The expert crew got us out in less than three minutes. But what if there had been fire? I’m thinking about Charlotte motorspeedway and a certain racecar I was in when it was on fire… As the boom lifted the car, the targa roof gave way and we were able to climb out of that opening. I managed to cut myself on broken glass getting out, but otherwise was no worse for wear.
I've said it elsewhere and I'll remind folks here. The safety equipment associated with seats/harness/helmet/hans needs to be purchased carefully and in coordination. The equipment in that car worked like a total package solution, and worked well.
My "takeaway" from this incident, other than three weeks of pain, doctors visits, expansion of my vocabulary (didn't know what a Nephrologyst or Nephrology was before this) and lots of sleeping. I've lost 10 pounds due to the "reduction in bad things" intake (no booz) and I've had time to analyze what I did wrong to contribute to HIS accident.
This gentleman and I were not assigned to each other. We didn't warm up together. I didn’t get a chance to experience his driving or his car “cold”. We were just chatting in the pits all day because we were pitted next to each other. I teach for a living in my real job in the IT world, so teaching and wanting to help people in general comes fairly natural to me. Having been raised on high HP and light weight high HP cars, over the years I have become FAR too comfortable in the right seat. The fact of the matter is, my 7/10ths might well be "MANY" of my students 10/10ths and that's simply where I failed. This chap was in over his head at T9, due to the compression in time between T5-8. The speed we picked up in those sections felt natural to me. It clearly was beyond his safety zone.
All that said, what I plan to do from this point forward with ALL my students is focus on the line and technique and skill areas at THEIR 7/10s. When we get to "perfectly managable" laps at THEIR 8/10ths, I will solo them and let them explore that 8/10ths to 10/10ths zone solo. I've always NOT wanted to just solo people because I hated that when I was coming up thru the ranks. You get that first bit of excitement that "YAY I'm solo" and then you get that pit in your stomach when the voice in your helmet is no longer there re-assuring you that you're doing the right thing. Students have come back to me events later to say they miss my yammering in their ear. Go figure.
And because I don’t want this topic to be JUST about doom and gloom of instructing students and how all us instructors are not worthy and should hang up our helmets and communicators…
... On the 25th of August, 9 days after the accident, at 1PM I entered a "Patient First" medical facility... Doc has blood drawn, does chest Xray, does motorskills testing. Comes back in with the Xrays and says "Sit down, I think you should go to the hospital immediately".
OK do I sit down or grab my stuff and leave? <scratches head> He shows me a few things on the chest Xray (Mainly my kidney pressing on my lung) that make him think there is something involving the kidneys and encroaching on the lungs. So I collect my things, thank him, tell him where I am heading, and he says "I will call ahead so they can get a room"... Holy mother, mary of KAYRYST!!! WTH am I gonna tell the wife... Hmmm... So I drive the hospital, fill out the touch screen pad and no kidding, I don't even sit down... lady walks over and gets me by the elbow... "Mr. Kelly we have a room for you, are you OK? Do you need a wheelchair?" <Don't panic>
I go in the room, they get a gown and start peeling me out of my dress shirt and undershirt. I get EKG pads attached by one individual while another is getting me ready for another blood draw... "You, Uhm, take sugar with that?" Not a single chuckle, chortel, nothing. Fawwwwk they are taking this seriously... Hmmm... I get the EKG scan done, stuck with the needle and they install a IV drip pick line. The doctor comes in and hears the story I told at the beginning of this thread. Shakes his head, his nurse shakes her head and I can tell they think I'm full of chit. Which reminded me... I had to go poop... so before we get down to the next series of tests, I say "Hey can I go to the restroom? "Sure, we need you to pee in a cup anyway... " Off I wander to destroy some hospital plumbing. I come back with cup, try the same "Sugar" joke on another unsuspecting soul and get the same type of response. Wonderful. I'm messed up... So they pipe a bag of IV fluid through me to get my bladder full. You know, the bladder I just emptied? Yea that one... An hour later, I get wheeled into the Ultrasound lab where this nice Asian American lady tells me she is going to do an ultrasound on my vital organs and that she will have to encroach on my pelvic are. Now at this point I'm thinking "Hey the Asian BOX FINALLY gets checked.... BZZTTT" wrong answer. She's all business too. Jeebus I can't even get a chuckle out of these people. Maybe when she sees the business end of my pelvic...<not funny>
So we get into this rythme of her grinding her hand all over me, and I do mean ALL over me... I'm fine the first series of scans because I have a full bladder and it is uncomfortable with her hand all around my junk pressing down on everything from my upper chest all the way down to the hang lows... But then she says "Break, now I need you to go empty your bladder." I'm thinking maybe I'll come back to disco **** music and Nurse Ratchet in fishnets... Nada... Second verse, same as the first. So now I don't have a distracting full bladder. Now she is spending a LOT of time around the pelvic region... <For the love of everything that is holy do NOT pitch a tent. DO NOT pitch a tent... please don't...>
Twenty minutes and two cigarettes later (I don't smoke) we're done and I'm back in the hospital room where I started off... Doctor comes in with his sidekick and they are chuckling. He says "Let me tell you a story... you're going to like this story because it is about you... I asked the technician her opinion about the internal injuries you might have and she said it looked like you had been in a bad car accident." They both laugh and I'm looking like a doofus thinking <Genius that's what I told you when I came in here 3 hours ago>. "You'll love this... I told her... Yea he did, 9 days ago" And they laugh some more... And "She just deadpanned it and said could you imagine how bad he looked 8 days ago?"
Ealrier I couldn't get a peep out of these mooks. Now they're killing themselves cracking up over my busted organs... Turns out I have bruised lungs and kidneys. The lungs are gonna be "OK" but the kidneys are sufficiently jacked enough that on Friday I had to go see a Nephrologyst. Thankfully I googled it a second after I mistyped it as "Phrenologist" ...
Goddam I hurt...
Anyway, feel free to pick all of this appart. I know there are some strong personalities here and I'm fine with the realizations stated above. My kidney, the one that has encroached on my lung function and caused labored breathing? It reminds me every day what I won't do the next time I get into a student’s car.
The article in Road & Track is very timely for me... I read it on a Wednesday and found myself hanging upside down in a students car the following SATURDAY...
As I posted elsewhere, I was involved in my first major incident from the right seat on August 16th at Summit Point.
I was instructing with a club at Summit Point Raceway park main circuit. I had an HPDE1 student and was not, repeat not driving a car. It was a last minute fill-in as they were short staffed and I didn't have time to prep the focusST. So my student had a 2003 BMW 330 with 192K miles on it. BONE stock. We had a great time all day working throw the process of getting the line down and finding his braking points. This guy was a true joy to work with and zero issues. He knew the limits of the car and was comfortable with my instruction.
Parked next to me was another guy in a Lotus Elise. We got to chatting and throughout the day really enjoyed talking cars and high performance driver's ed. He is an HPDE2 student and according to him, his instructor had basically disappeared on him after the first morning session. At around 3 PM he asked if I would go out for a session with him. I was skeptical that I would be able to fit into the carbon fixed back seats in the car, but I did, so we adjusted the harnesses and I went off and found my communicator device I had given my student. When our session was called, we hopped in, strapped in and off we went. I was wearing my Pyrotec Helmet and my HANS device, sitting in an FIA approved Lotus specific seats, and using Schroth 6 point harnesses.
2/3rd of the way through our session the student was picking up speed and cleaning up lines with my help. Summit Point Raceway park main circuit has three high event corners, one being Turn 3, one being turn 9 and one being turn10. Only turn nine causes me concern as an instructor and I had mentioned that to my HPDE1 student in the first session of the day. T9 is where my group 2 student, with new found speed from cleaning up the entry to T5-8 would enter to early, pinch the apex and find himself out at the far edge of the pavement. He was fine and would have had enough space to stay on track or at worst put to tires off. Had he stayed on the throttle it would have been a teachable moment we could have cleaned up the next lap. Instead, He lifted. I felt it immediately at the first "breath" of the throttle and said "GAS", and then he lifted off all the way and the car rotated at a very high rate of speed. Into the tire wall on the right side of the track we went. The car struck the tire wall, spun to the right side, got tangled in a bundle of tires and flipped.
Yes, I said flipped.
These are small cars. When we were sitting in the pits I noticed my left elbow touching his right. I'm 225# and he was probably 195#. Not small guys to say the least... So now we are upside down and the car is still "on". I tell him to calm down and turn the car off. He is in panic. We cut the ignition off and then… Silence. I'm hanging by the harnesses and trying to figure out how we are going to get out. Sniffing for gas, oil, or smoke. Nothing. He was simply overcome by the gravity of our situation and he was terrified. Within less 30 seconds the corner worker was asking if there were injuries. Within less than a minute the track had rolled two ambulances, the fire engine, the boom truck, a roll back, a wrecker, and three trucks full of people. Three previous redflag incidents weren't helping the nerves of all who were running this event. And here I am, upside down in a car, student who wasn't even mine, at an event I wasn't even supposed to be at... I felt a lot like Dante from the Movie "Clerks"!
Sitting upside down it dawned on me that my student was not capable of getting out on his side because of the disorientation and the shock of crashing his prized possession. I wasn't getting out because my door and window were blocked by grass and tirewall. The expert crew got us out in less than three minutes. But what if there had been fire? I’m thinking about Charlotte motorspeedway and a certain racecar I was in when it was on fire… As the boom lifted the car, the targa roof gave way and we were able to climb out of that opening. I managed to cut myself on broken glass getting out, but otherwise was no worse for wear.
I've said it elsewhere and I'll remind folks here. The safety equipment associated with seats/harness/helmet/hans needs to be purchased carefully and in coordination. The equipment in that car worked like a total package solution, and worked well.
My "takeaway" from this incident, other than three weeks of pain, doctors visits, expansion of my vocabulary (didn't know what a Nephrologyst or Nephrology was before this) and lots of sleeping. I've lost 10 pounds due to the "reduction in bad things" intake (no booz) and I've had time to analyze what I did wrong to contribute to HIS accident.
This gentleman and I were not assigned to each other. We didn't warm up together. I didn’t get a chance to experience his driving or his car “cold”. We were just chatting in the pits all day because we were pitted next to each other. I teach for a living in my real job in the IT world, so teaching and wanting to help people in general comes fairly natural to me. Having been raised on high HP and light weight high HP cars, over the years I have become FAR too comfortable in the right seat. The fact of the matter is, my 7/10ths might well be "MANY" of my students 10/10ths and that's simply where I failed. This chap was in over his head at T9, due to the compression in time between T5-8. The speed we picked up in those sections felt natural to me. It clearly was beyond his safety zone.
All that said, what I plan to do from this point forward with ALL my students is focus on the line and technique and skill areas at THEIR 7/10s. When we get to "perfectly managable" laps at THEIR 8/10ths, I will solo them and let them explore that 8/10ths to 10/10ths zone solo. I've always NOT wanted to just solo people because I hated that when I was coming up thru the ranks. You get that first bit of excitement that "YAY I'm solo" and then you get that pit in your stomach when the voice in your helmet is no longer there re-assuring you that you're doing the right thing. Students have come back to me events later to say they miss my yammering in their ear. Go figure.
And because I don’t want this topic to be JUST about doom and gloom of instructing students and how all us instructors are not worthy and should hang up our helmets and communicators…
... On the 25th of August, 9 days after the accident, at 1PM I entered a "Patient First" medical facility... Doc has blood drawn, does chest Xray, does motorskills testing. Comes back in with the Xrays and says "Sit down, I think you should go to the hospital immediately".
OK do I sit down or grab my stuff and leave? <scratches head> He shows me a few things on the chest Xray (Mainly my kidney pressing on my lung) that make him think there is something involving the kidneys and encroaching on the lungs. So I collect my things, thank him, tell him where I am heading, and he says "I will call ahead so they can get a room"... Holy mother, mary of KAYRYST!!! WTH am I gonna tell the wife... Hmmm... So I drive the hospital, fill out the touch screen pad and no kidding, I don't even sit down... lady walks over and gets me by the elbow... "Mr. Kelly we have a room for you, are you OK? Do you need a wheelchair?" <Don't panic>
I go in the room, they get a gown and start peeling me out of my dress shirt and undershirt. I get EKG pads attached by one individual while another is getting me ready for another blood draw... "You, Uhm, take sugar with that?" Not a single chuckle, chortel, nothing. Fawwwwk they are taking this seriously... Hmmm... I get the EKG scan done, stuck with the needle and they install a IV drip pick line. The doctor comes in and hears the story I told at the beginning of this thread. Shakes his head, his nurse shakes her head and I can tell they think I'm full of chit. Which reminded me... I had to go poop... so before we get down to the next series of tests, I say "Hey can I go to the restroom? "Sure, we need you to pee in a cup anyway... " Off I wander to destroy some hospital plumbing. I come back with cup, try the same "Sugar" joke on another unsuspecting soul and get the same type of response. Wonderful. I'm messed up... So they pipe a bag of IV fluid through me to get my bladder full. You know, the bladder I just emptied? Yea that one... An hour later, I get wheeled into the Ultrasound lab where this nice Asian American lady tells me she is going to do an ultrasound on my vital organs and that she will have to encroach on my pelvic are. Now at this point I'm thinking "Hey the Asian BOX FINALLY gets checked.... BZZTTT" wrong answer. She's all business too. Jeebus I can't even get a chuckle out of these people. Maybe when she sees the business end of my pelvic...<not funny>
So we get into this rythme of her grinding her hand all over me, and I do mean ALL over me... I'm fine the first series of scans because I have a full bladder and it is uncomfortable with her hand all around my junk pressing down on everything from my upper chest all the way down to the hang lows... But then she says "Break, now I need you to go empty your bladder." I'm thinking maybe I'll come back to disco **** music and Nurse Ratchet in fishnets... Nada... Second verse, same as the first. So now I don't have a distracting full bladder. Now she is spending a LOT of time around the pelvic region... <For the love of everything that is holy do NOT pitch a tent. DO NOT pitch a tent... please don't...>
Twenty minutes and two cigarettes later (I don't smoke) we're done and I'm back in the hospital room where I started off... Doctor comes in with his sidekick and they are chuckling. He says "Let me tell you a story... you're going to like this story because it is about you... I asked the technician her opinion about the internal injuries you might have and she said it looked like you had been in a bad car accident." They both laugh and I'm looking like a doofus thinking <Genius that's what I told you when I came in here 3 hours ago>. "You'll love this... I told her... Yea he did, 9 days ago" And they laugh some more... And "She just deadpanned it and said could you imagine how bad he looked 8 days ago?"
Ealrier I couldn't get a peep out of these mooks. Now they're killing themselves cracking up over my busted organs... Turns out I have bruised lungs and kidneys. The lungs are gonna be "OK" but the kidneys are sufficiently jacked enough that on Friday I had to go see a Nephrologyst. Thankfully I googled it a second after I mistyped it as "Phrenologist" ...
Goddam I hurt...
Anyway, feel free to pick all of this appart. I know there are some strong personalities here and I'm fine with the realizations stated above. My kidney, the one that has encroached on my lung function and caused labored breathing? It reminds me every day what I won't do the next time I get into a student’s car.
Last edited by Mikelly; 09-07-2014 at 07:41 AM.
09-06-2014, 10:37 AM
#3
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
The story ends with me being sidelined for another four weeks minimum and I have to be checked out by my nephrologist on October 6. After that and if all goes well I will be back in a car instructing and driving.
Apparently the combinations of impacts and the GForces on my internals caused major bruising and swelling. I had no idea the level of pain, as it was like a potentiometer and increased slowly.
Lots of soreness. Lots of naps. Babysteps getting back to the normal routines of life.
Apparently the combinations of impacts and the GForces on my internals caused major bruising and swelling. I had no idea the level of pain, as it was like a potentiometer and increased slowly.
Lots of soreness. Lots of naps. Babysteps getting back to the normal routines of life.
09-06-2014, 12:50 PM
#6
Race Car
Good grief Mike. Bruised organs! Glad you didn't have anything worse.
09-06-2014, 01:47 PM
#7
Wonderful bit of story telling, and I'm glad you were able to tell it. I hope you have a full recovery.
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09-06-2014, 01:59 PM
#8
Drifting
Wow, what an experience. I've had a few "offs" with students but nothing like what you've been thru. Your point about not knowing the driver and working up from cold to hot is spot on. Every instructor needs to build their confidence thru the sight and sound observations acquired during the initial laps. I can't tell you how many times I've had to tell students to slow down to go fast.
Good luck with the recovery.
Good luck with the recovery.
09-06-2014, 02:56 PM
#9
I'm in....
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09-06-2014, 08:16 PM
#13
Rennlist Member
I wish you well...and soon.
09-06-2014, 08:27 PM
#14
Rennlist Member
That is truly scary. Glad you're not in worse shape. Glad there was no fire! I really don't like T9 at SP. There's a little dip in the pavement, right on line that always seems to upset things a little. This is the corner where one of our club's drivers (now a very competent club racer) flipped his 911 some years back, nicely demonstrating how helpful a rollbar can be. It's also the only corner where I've had an off from the right seat. My student was driving (quite well, I thought) a Cayman R, gradually picking up the pace with each session. The car spun in T9 without any obvious defect in technique, bending some metal against the tirewall on the left. I was truly unable to figure out what went wrong, but that's likely a function of my lack of depth in riding shotgun.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing.
09-06-2014, 10:46 PM
#15
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After that and if all goes well I will be back in a car instructing and driving. Apparently the combinations of impacts and the GForces on my internals caused major bruising and swelling. I had no idea the level of pain, as it was like a potentiometer and increased slowly. Lots of soreness. Lots of naps. Babysteps getting back to the normal routines of life.
Best wishes in your recovery and return to the track.