Tony Stewart Spins Out then Runs Over Fellow Driver, Kills Him

[RJH999]

With Cleveland's luck, he'll cramp up in the first game & have to get his leg amputated.

Please don't undo your years of therapy.

[Ernest Jones]

Warning, hard to watch but relevant to the discussion. At the time there was a LOT of speculation as to whether or not there was intent.

Player reactions:

[Golfingdad]

Warning, hard to watch but relevant to the discussion. At the time there was a LOT of speculation as to whether or not there was intent.

Intent to what, though?  I've played hockey and I've enjoyed hitting people.  I've even flipped a guy over the boards once.  I've also cross checked guys who were standing in front of the net and pushing me or my goalie, or just generally irritating me.  I intended to hit them each of those times, but never intended to hurt them.  (I never actually hurt anybody, FYI)

Without knowing anything aboot that particular incident, or much aboot Chara in general, my first assumption would be that he almost certainly intended to put the guy into the boards.  Beyond that, I'd avoid speculating.  I'm sure that had he known what the result would have been, he'd have not done it.  These guys are tough, ruthless, competitors, but I'm pretty sure that they're not sociopaths.  ('cept maybe Rae Carruth and Aaron Hernandez)

(Yes, those spelling "errors" were intentional ;))

[Valleygolfer]

I didn't see the video but have seen the races and it isn't that easy to see on a dirt track and when you race you are often looking at inner part of the track. During a yellow flag you might have more time to see other activities but you also have to deal with mud on your helmet and not really expecting to have someone walking on the track. It would be difficult to prove he saw him and easy to say he shouldn't have been there. Plus I doubt Stewart would have been mad that Ward was in the wall and he was still racing.

[Mayday]

With their history its easy to see why people would think its intentional especially since he was the one who caused his spinout. I saw a raw video (only 2 or 3 times from a cell phone) and it looked to me like he swerved into him (probably more so to scare him than to actually run him over) and he hit him on accident it could also be him slamming on his brakes and the car moving to the right as a result but not being there in person or seeing a better video I definitely cant say. Sad situation

[mmoan2]

But not in the temple. If they're gonna hit the batter it's below the shoulders. If some pitcher threw 95mph heat straight at a batter's head, you're damn right I would try to bring him up on criminal charges. They're professionals. They know where to place a pitch.

Playing a sport does not give anyone the right to intentionally hurt/kill anyone. Gawd, have we lost that perspective?

How do you prove someone was intentionally throwing at a person's head? Sometimes people get beaned and the pitcher is trying to throw a fastball on the outside corner. Trust me, I know. If you try to bean someone in the back and it misses by a foot, it's a shot in the head. If a pitcher killed someone with a bean ball to the head and he, in a court of law, admitted he was intentionally throwing at the head with the intent to hurt someone, yes, that's manslaughter. No preponderance of evidence could possibly prove that, though.

Also, intentionally hurting someone is pretty much part of every contact pro sport. Beaning a batter intends to hurt him. Laying a shot on a WR crossing the middle intends to hurt him and prevent him from running the same route. Hockey fights intend to hurt people. Hard fouls in the paint intend to hurt. Maybe not cripple someone, or cause injury - and certainly not kill anyone - but hurt, yes. Physical intimidation is part of contact sports. I think when you sign up to play a game professionally, and generally make more money than most of us will ever see, you assume a degree of risk that an ordinary citizen should not be subjected to. It might even be an interesting legal challenge to write criminal statutes specifically geared toward professional athletes.

[Golfingdad]

Moving forward though ... I am wondering if this will lead to some change in policy where NASCAR (I know this wasn't nascar, but I'm sure this behavior is learned from the nascar guys) starts levying massive fines for guys getting out of their cars unnecessarily on the track.

http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/story/_/id/11356848/nascar-announces-rules-change-where-drivers-leave-cars-track-incidents

They say they'll be handling these on a case-by-case basis, so there doesn't seem to be any official fine or sanction structure, at least yet.

[Moxie Dawn]

If I'm not mistaken, New York is one of those states in which they consider shared culpability. Florida is another. The point of the law is to recognize that everything isn't black and white. In some cases, there isn't a 100% culpable person. Take Donte Stallworth, for example. Kills a pedestrian while driving under the influence. But in Florida, they take everyone into account, and because the pedestrian jumped a barrier and crossed at an unsafe location he was partly responsible for his own death, whether Stallworth had a buzz or not. If I'm correct about New York having a similar law regarding how much responsibility each party has in an accident like this, I don't see how the same result won't happen. Ward took a foolish risk, put himself in harm's way, and got killed. And particularly because nobody here is a mind reader and there is no way anyone can prove intent on Stewart's part (short of a confession), I don't see how he can be charged with anything.

[TN94z]

I used to race sprint cars and here are my opinions on the subject. It's VERY hard to see out of the car, especially on that side. The cars are designed to go left and the use of the throttle weighs heavily on steering. It's not hard for me to believe that Tony did rev the engine in an attempt to steer it away from the kid. The bottom line for me (even if it sounds cold hearted) is that he never should've gotten out of the car if his life wasn't in danger. This happens all to often and puts too many people in danger. Coming from a person who used to race and judging by what I saw and have read, I don't believe Tony had bad intentions

[acerimusdux]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TN94z

I used to race sprint cars and here are my opinions on the subject. It's VERY hard to see out of the car, especially on that side. The cars are designed to go left and the use of the throttle weighs heavily on steering. It's not hard for me to believe that Tony did rev the engine in an attempt to steer it away from the kid.

The bottom line for me (even if it sounds cold hearted) is that he never should've gotten out of the car if his life wasn't in danger. This happens all to often and puts too many people in danger. Coming from a person who used to race and judging by what I saw and have read, I don't believe Tony had bad intentions

I read something very similar today from one of the drivers in that race:

Quote:

"From what I saw, Tony did everything in his power to turn down away from Kevin to avoid him," said sprint car driver Cory Sparks.

Sparks was just a few cars behind Stewart during Saturday's race. He said videos that have been posted online do not give an accurate picture of what happened.

"People say that they heard the engine rev up and he gassed it. In a sprint car, the only way to steer is you steer with the rear wheels as much as you do the steering wheel. In my opinion, what he did was he gassed it to turn down away from him," said Sparks.

Sparks also said drivers are very limited with the amount they can see out of the right side of the car.

link

If that's what experienced sprint car drivers are saying, then there's really likely no grounds for charging Stewart with anything.  I still think the way Stewart turned probably made it worse, but it really looked like he may have thought he was going to hit him anyway, and maybe in that instant he thought it was better to try to turn the car rather than do nothing.

I'd still like to hear an explanation from Tony at some point of what occurred, but I suppose with the possibility of legal action still pending, he has to be cautious about making any public statements right now.