Brought a tear to my eye this morning. Such a promising future but at least he went doing what he loved. Much sympathy to the family and close friends. He will be missed.
This has made national news. Any bets on when the outcry from child welfare advocate groups condemning the parents will begin? It is sad, but predictable.
It's already started. Sad thing is Peters dad (mike) was soooo hardcore about gear, I'm having a hard time understanding what could have caused fatal damage to the kid. I know gear can't protect from everything, still.
The AP wording isn't going to help either, we understand what "fell off his motorcycle" means, but imagine how the minivan moms reading that in the morning paper are going to take it.
I was allways looking forward to being able to say "I saw that kid ride as a teen at PIR" when he was on a world class podium.
I saw a video of where the accident happened (they didn't show the actual accident). It looked like he fell off his bike at the end of the straight away and was just sitting in the middle of the track with his arms raised so the other riders could see him. The kid that hit him apparently did not see him ... maybe because he was drafting another rider ... I don't know. Anyway, he must have hit the kid at a very high speed. I have no idea what that was but I would not be surprised if it was near 100MPH. I don't know that gear can protect you from that kind of impact at that speed.
THIS SUCKS. I really enjoy watching young people succeed and he seemed to be on the fast track in getting there. As was already stated I feel for the other young rider that crashed into him, how sad the impact that it could have on the lives of the young people.
Sorry, guess I'm going to be the first one to say it. These bikes are too fast for kids this age. They say that most auto accidents with teens are caused from inexperience and, more importantly, a brain that isn't fully developed and not capable of the level of decision making needed for safe driving. Even more so for people younger than the legal driving age.
That said, the riding he could do was spectacular - truly talented.
12 year olds should not be racing around on bikes that can break the ton.
I feel for this kid's family and for the other kid who hit him - it's gotta be real rough all around.
breaks my heart to hear this, I remember somebody posting that first youtube video up and I was just in awe. I have been checking for more videos of him since. I was just waiting until he landed in GP or some other "big time" race.
from what I see the track was just not in condition to race on, for whatever reason.
quote:
Still, racing conditions were not ideal this weekend at Indy. Hot, dry weather turned the bumpy, 2.621-mile course into a slick track that tested the world's best riders.
Reigning world champ Valentino Rossi fell four times, including a spill Sunday morning during a 20-minute warmup session. Sunday's Moto2 race was shortened after a big wreck on the first lap took out four drivers.
"This was the most difficult race for everyone," MotoGP winner Dani Pedrosa said. "The conditions were very hard because of the heat and the asphalt was very greasy."
He was struck coming out of the slowest corner on the track. Those 250 singles were doing maybe 45mph. The fantastical claims of +100mph are true, but only down the front and back straights. He was killed just after turn 4. So, don't let the media go crazy. This was a freak accident, like we see in all other sports, and had nothing to do with overall speed.