Race driver killed

It really is a shame that young (20) race driver Kevin Ward was tragically killed at a dirt track in upstate New York. Sometimes crashes happen at all levels of racing, and occasionally result in fatalities, though the sport as a whole has become much safer than it used to be through various upgrades in protective measure for the drivers.

But a driver getting run over as a "pedestrian" and killed by another race car is most ususual indeed. Yet it happened to Kevin Ward.

Apparently, noted NASCAR driver Tony Stewart made contact with Ward's car which spun the youngster crashing into the wall, effectively ending his race. Whether this initial contact was Stewart's or Ward's fault seems immaterial at this point. But Ward was pissed.

So he climbed out his car, still fully healthy, and waited for "Smoke" to come around the track again, presumably to holler, shake his fist, maybe throw his helmet, and otherwise let Stewart know he wasn't exactly happy with how the crash came about.

Little did he suspect he would be dead a few seconds later, having been run over by the very car and driver he wished to express his outrage at. This was a tragedy indeed, but beyond the obvious, a few things are wrong with this.

First of all, Ward climbing out of his car to stand in the middle of a race track, yellow flag or not, was an incredibly stupid thing to do. On top of that, he was wearing a black fire suit at a dimly lit dirt track. The back ends of cars typically fish-tail through the turns at dirt tracks and that is precisely what got Ward killed. When Stewart came around again, his right rear snagged Ward and the youngster got caught up underneath the car. Game, and life, over.

But he should have known better. What Ward did was like playing hopscotch on the interstate. One might survive, but it's definitely tempting fate. These are bad ideas. With all due sympathy to Ward and his family, sometimes doing stupid things can get one killed. Most any race car driver knows to stay in his/her car wrecked car until the rescue squad arrives and everything is totally safe. You do not, repeat NOT stand in the middle of the track waiting to flip the bird to another driver. In that respect, Ward himself was responsible for his own demise.

Of course, there's the cops. There's always cops poking their noses around looking for a reason to put somebody in jail even if a crime hasn't been committed. Amid much fanfare, the head boy in blue called a press conference. He said no criminal charges were being considered against Stewart at this time. Well, no kidding. It was a tragic racing accident, mostly prompted by a stupid act of the deceased. Yet despite the race track videos, they still want any spectators that filmed the incident to come forward to share their "evidence". Maybe, just maybe, they can build a case that Stewart mowed down Ward on purpose -- with malice and aforethought -- and send him up the river for a bunch of years. Though it's typical cop-thought, they had no business in this matter to begin with. It was obviously an accident, but the authorities always want to assign blame and burn somebody these days, whether it's justifiable or not. Scary thing is, they can often get gullible juries to believe it.

The whole incident was, in a word, unfortunate. The Ward family will grieve their loss of Kevin, and Tony Stewart will no doubt have haunting memories for quite some time.

But like Dale Earnhart Jr. said -- it's racing -- and sometimes bad things just happen. Considering his daddy -- he would know.....