Nathan Williamson…. And

[Newmarket]

Wow, how bad was that incident, i was waiting for someone to post about it but as nothing, had to ask. 
 

Obviously his health is the main concern, and i hope he recovers well. 
 

But i have never seen anything like that, was the seat loose, or did something break, stewards report say little about it? 

[the galah]

9 hours ago, Newmarket said:

Wow, how bad was that incident, i was waiting for someone to post about it but as nothing, had to ask. 
 

Obviously his health is the main concern, and i hope he recovers well. 
 

But i have never seen anything like that, was the seat loose, or did something break, stewards report say little about it? 

i'm sure everyone who watched it ,whether it be owners.trainers,drivers, punters and officials ,all would have had the same awful feeling watching williamson fall from his sulky. 

Its not like if you watch or pass a car accident ,where you can soon enough  detach yourself from feelings of concern and relatabilty. Seeing a harness  driver go through what williamson and his family is going through somehow seems more relateable,mostly because you  sort of know the people concerned,even if  your relationship is just  through the tv screen. But everyone who follows harness racing closely ,across the whole spectrum of people who do,will have williamsons well being in their thoughts.

As to how it happened.

Without knowing the exact damage the sulky suffered,it seems on the face of it reasonable to assume, that what happened was consistent with some catasthropic failure in the structure of  what holds the sulky seat in place.

and i think its reasonable to point out that when that occurs,because of the design of modern harness racing carts,the consequences will be so much worse than they were,had the racecart been an older design.

These days if you walk around a racetrack or you look at the racecarts for sale on the internet,you ill see the modern day seat for the driver is positioned,extending beyond the solid framework of the racecart. In other words, it sticks out the back with nothing underneath,held on by i assume strong welding.

Theres a  difference between the race carts most trainers use these days and what some of the more old school trainers and those smaller trainers who have had their carts for years use.

look at them and i'm sure you would conclude,the older style racecarts,when it comes to the position of the seat, are built placing safety of much greater importance than the modern racecart.

 The modern racecarts are simply built with the focus more on speed.

Thats always been my opinion anyway. And thats how it plays out on the very rare occasions like what happened on friday.

The older style racecarts seat is positioned directly over the solid framework of the back of the sulky structure,so if their was a breakdown in the seat structure,or the seat comes off,or moves due to not quite being tightened enough when put on,the driver had the large structure underneath the seat to sit on,albeit uncomfortably,should something happen.

And of just as great an importance,theolder style races is designed so the weight of the driver is distributed over a surface where he or she is far less likely to lose their balance in a way that will lead to a fall from the cart.

with the modern carts the bulk of the drivers body weight is weight is above nothing but the seat structure and if ,in the unlikely event the structure or welding hold it in place crumbles,its virtually impossible for any driver to hang on as they simply are sitting above thin air,and they have to tumble onto the track. 

thats what it appeared to happen,it wasn't anything williamson did ,nor was there anything he could do when it happened.

also,the footrests where the drivers position their feet for balance are far more substantial in an older type designed cart than a modern one,again leading to greater stability for the driver  for their feet,should something go wrong and the older style carts also have straps attached to the main framework of the cart as a back up should welding fail.

anyway,thats just the way the modern racecart is built.Obviously it shouldn't fail  ,but when it does,the helpless driver can't do anything about it and would be totally unaware of what was going to happen and it happens so quickly.

as to the trackside not showing what happened. It may just be me,but i think it doesn't help by them not doing that. Everyone ,including his family,would have been trying to wrap their heads around what had just happened and would have better understood things had they got to see it again,but instead trackside just left everyone wondering. To me,that just makes things worse for those wathcing..

i know they have mentioned williamson being worried about the knocks to his head, but the rest of his body would have suffered badly as well. from such a fall As i said earlier,i know we are all hoping he heals andrecovers quickly. 

Edited 2 hours ago by the galah