MORAL OF THE STORY: DONT STAND TOO CLOSE TO THE "TRACK"
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/off-road-racing-accident-kills/story?id=11406945
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An off-road racing accident in California's Mojave Desert that left eight people dead and 12 injured, may have occurred because fans wanted to get too close to the speeding trucks.
Hundreds of stunned off-road racing fans looked on horrified Saturday night at the carnage at the California 200 in the Mojave Desert, 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, after driver Brett M. Sloppy, 28, lost control of his truck that then catapulted into the crowd at high speed.
Sloppy, of San Marcos, Calif., was operating the modified Ford Ranger along the 50-mile track at the desert event, where tens of thousands of revelers stood just feet away from trucks reaching speeds in excess of 60 miles per hour.
Race fans are supposed to keep themselves 100 feet away from the charging off-road vehicles, but the organizers of these races generally don't have the money to police the crowds -- so they depend on federal and local officials to patrol.
