Hello everyone,
I feel I need to talk about what happened in the Bahrain Grand Prix today but that’ll come after a little bit of spoiler space talking about something else. It definitely needs a big caution warning as the pictures that will be on the news, the description of the accident and the potential consequences are grave and distressing but the important thing is that the driver is banged up but ok and I hope he’s racing again next season (only two weeks of this season left!).
It’s almost Advent season …
(this is the point where I’d put the twitter thumbnail pic in but I don’t think pictures are going to be appropriate today)
I have a couple of plans for posts over Advent season. I missed out on getting another Marshmallow Advent calendar but I did manage to acquire another Star Wars Lego calendar. The chocolate ones were looking incredibly tempting in the shops too …
So Star Wars Lego plus … I’ll be talking about games. I’ve got a decent list of games together. I’d intended to be playing a few of them again so I could farm some screenshots. That hasn’t quite happened, partly because mental energy hasn’t really been there to open them up again. But maybe mostly because Mars Horizon came along and it is perhaps the most addicting game I’ve played … Oh and it’s a lovely little space programme managing game too. I would thoroughly recommend it and I’m hoping we see more from the devs, they’ve made a little marvel here.
The Xmas season is going to be an odd one. England is still under lockdown for a couple of days due to ongoing pandemic. (Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland are subject to different restrictions). We should be continuing the lockdown after the intended end on Wednesday 2nd. That’s my opinion. The virus does not care about our individual freedoms. If the virus could feel, it would actually rejoice if we were to go back to normal on Wednesday. A virus only wants one thing, to spread itself to as many victims as possible. And by going out again and ignoring precautions, we allow it to do just that.
The UK is down to 11k cases daily now from a peak of 25k, although the statistics are lower on the weekends with our reporting. We need to be consistently below 1000 for at least a week before we allow the lockdowns to lift. As soon as this virus gets a chance, it’s off again with the super spreading. It’s like a spark on kerosene in an oxygen rich environment.
So yeah, I think Xmas gatherings are most definitely at risk still at the moment. And it seems like Xmas is being seen as an exception at the moment, in a way that the festivals of other religions have not been. (I’m not going to name them all because I’d get it wrong) The popularism should not be neglecting other groups in favour of their core groups. But … that’s the way popularism seems to be working.
Sidenote – one of the most brilliant moments in Babylon 5 came at the end of the A Parliament of Dreams episode where the station has a weeklong festivals of the diverse religious beliefs of the races inhabiting the station. When it came to the turn of Earth at the end, the commander of the station, Commander Sinclair, starts to lead the ambassadors of those races down a procession of representatives of the varied and diverse religions on Earth. Brilliant, symbolic and perfect. And the episode faded out from there giving the impression of infinite diversity of beliefs, all valid.
Caution warning – I’m about to start talking about the Grand Prix incident now.
The reason for that caution warning is that I know that people have their triggers where reading about another incident will cause their trauma to resurface. I have my own unconscious triggers there where if I see certain things or incidents, my mind will retreat behind the barriers.
It’s awkward to talk about that, mostly because I don’t think I have the words to express it. But one of the artists I follow (she does great work and she’s one I’d like to be able to get close to in style and skill) was involved in a fatal (for the driver at fault) road accident that left her permanently marked both physically and mentally. If she were to be exposed to the basic description of the accident at the Grand Prix today, I suspect that she would be retreating very quickly into a psychological armour shell that she would be silently screaming behind and that a lot of her healing since her accident would be undone.
So please, have respect for how deeply you discuss the accident. And some of the below will be too deep for some readers.
What happened ? Romain Grosjean, in avoiding a potential incident ahead of him, ended up tapping the wheel of the driver behind and this resulted in his car going into and through an armco steel barrier at probably 150mph with an immediate flash fire. After seeing it a couple of times, I would attach no blame to anyone involved, they were all taking sensible action.
When pictures were eventually shown, the resulting scene was a car that had been cut in two, apparently around where the driver is. I think this is an illusion and that the bodywork separated from the survival cell which was fully intact. The rear of the car was on the track side of the barrier, Grosjean had to escape the survival cell front end, through a fire and with the track side barrier in the way.
Is he ok – apparently the damage is just minor burns plus broken ribs. That’s a miracle and a testament to the fitness of the driver, the safety features introduced into the cars and the strength of those cars. When seeing it, I was giving it a 1% chance of survival and it’s a huge relief that this time, he’s come out fairly ok.
It’s the worst accident that I have seen in 40 odd years of watching Formula 1 and other motor racing, although memory is fading on incidents like the ones to Gerhard Berger, Johnny Herbert, I wasn’t around to see the Niki Lauda fire and we were away for Senna.
Halo – I was opposed to this when it came in, because I was thinking of the incident that really ended Filipe Massa’s career (he wasn’t the same after he came back). In that case, a chunky loose suspension spring came into the cockpit and clobbered him on the head. The halo wouldn’t stop that.
But what the halo did do was that when the armco barrier was pierced, it steered the broken pieces of barrier around and over him. I was more in the aero screen camp but that method doesn’t have that solid structure down the centre.
The halo clearly saved his life. And one life saved makes it the most valuable innovation to come into motor racing in recent years. The thought is that it has also prevented other injuries from flying wheels and tyres.
I suspect, like on our motorways, armco barriers are likely to become outlawed and replaced with tyre barriers to absorb the energy of an impact or concrete blocks to redirect the energy of the incident.
Should they have raced ? I was finding that a difficult thought, because I really don’t like seeing people get hurt, including the potential for people to get hurt. However, you accept a certain amount of risk when you do sport and you have to recognise that the decision of the people taking the risk is important, your decision to watch is completely separate.
I have skin in that game too. When I had my first cricket head injury, I obviously couldn’t take any further part in that game. My nose had been kinda rearranged and I needed to get properly checked out. I was apparently less coherent than I thought I was. But I managed to get another game in before the end of the season. I think that was critical in order to face off that potential psychological demon before it had a chance to take root and affect my ability to play cricket in later seasons. Oh and the game I got hurt in continued and I’d have been disappointed if it had been called off.
I was relieved when I saw that Artist Lady up above was able to drive a car again, although she said it took a lot to get her to that position and I don’t think she drives in darkness again yet.
So yeah. Misgivings about the race restarting but it’s the drivers taking that risk, it has to be their decision.
You recognise the potential and risk of Bad Things Happening and decide whether you want to be a part of that. In my case again, I thought there was far too high a risk of me, due to my shoulder injury, bowling a ball that could have seriously hurt and hospitalised someone. So I stopped bowling. That wasn’t so much psychological as skeletomechanical.
I’ve digressed a fair bit in this post …
Romain Grosjean, haven’t liked him as a driver (too crashy!) but it was a massive relief to see him in the medical car looking shaken but otherwise ok.
The coverage was great. After the initial incident, nothing was shown of the accident or aftermath until it was absolute confirmed that everyone was ok. It was and will be tough to watch the accident through again in future. This is in direct contrast to other sports, which have allowed high levels of injury detail to be shown in continued replays after the incident. And yes, I’m looking at my beloved cricket there, where replays of incidents like what happened to Steve Smith last year (hit in head, concussion bad enough to take him out of the next game) were shown repeatedly, despite the incident with Philip Hughes (Aussie cricketer) who sadly got the other end of the 1% and died instantly after being hit on the head despite wearing a helmet.
We don’t need in depth public analysis of incidents like that. We need to figure out what happened so that we can insure it doesn’t happen again and doesn’t happen worse. But that doesn’t need to be public or subject to speculation. We don’t need injury to be the subject of sensationalism.
Especially when bringing out all the horrific detail opens up half healed trauma in our friends, acquaintances and neighbours.
And I include me in that as well. With my second cricket head injury, I turned my head away and caught it on the grille over my ear instead. I dread to think what might have happened if both incidents had gone slightly the other way :
Nose Job – my glasses survived intact and probably saved my right eye.
Helmet – if I’d had time to turn my head more, it might have missed the helmet and I’d have been in hospital again.
I still sometimes see a flash of a cricket ball about to hit me in the eye. It didn’t affect me when playing but I think it happens when the sun glare or shadows change. And no one will ever see me do it but I do flinch.
Trauma is very real. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is very real. (I don’t think I have PTSD, or at least it’s very minor if I do)
Discussions of incidents like the one at the racing today could easily open up those psychological wounds again. So my plea is to have respect for the subject matter, those who you’re discussing it with and who could potentially read what you’re talking about.
(that’s why I’m not adding in Artist Lady’s name, that would be cruel making her live through her accident again).
If you’ve gotten to this point, thank you for reading. I’ve let a few bits of myself out here that haven’t been seen outside my head before or I’ve only talked about them with a handful of people, although I hope that none of it is of any surprise to anyone.
Feels weird not playing the Fun Thumbnail game. Be safe, be well, see you for advent.
