Proposed Rule Changes

[Ben]

I posted this to facebook and tagged a bunch of drivers that I knew. This should not be a closed conversation, so spread the word to your driver friends and hopefully they'll speak up as well.

Also, I've heard there might be a legal reason they are trying to add some of these rules...

[Rachael]

The proposed rule change has been altered to have the documentation sent to the advisor, not a student member of sweepstakes.

I still don't like it, but I respect this change a lot.

[ericmorton]

All school level athletics now have concussion level protocols where the trainer and/or doctor must sign off on the ability for an athlete to return to athletic activities. Somehow they manage to do this without the doctor having a liability issue.

At some level, I believe that a rule like this is good but agree that a doctor may not understand what buggy is to provide the clearance. Maybe one should just write it that the driver must present all information about activity limitations from his/her doctor to the safety chair and the safety chair should clear the driver based on that information? Or maybe just have a statement from the doctor "Driver XYZ is cleared to participate in sports".

[shafeeq]

I have to respectfully disagree that all drivers (or anyone else participating, for that matter) fully understand the risks the drivers are taking, and those who do, don't believe it can happen to them. The same, especially the latter, is probably true in many other high-risk sports. Where one can win by taking more risk, the sport usually sets a limit (rational or irrational) on what risks people are allowed to take, both to level the playing field, protect people from their own competitiveness, and protect the sport from any one individual. There's plenty of examples of this in buggy already. I'm all for more awareness, especially since so many of the hazards are outside of the driver's control. The fact that we repeatedly have cars getting on the course, hatches falling off, brake failures, all of which _lead_ to injury and yet the most pressing issue is what to do _after_ an injury says something.

Doctors do manage to deal with sports like skiing, cycling, motocross, speedskating, etc. that have the same speeds and injury potential as buggy, so one can look at what they do. I can think of people who've chosen to quit each of those after recovering from an injury, because repeating the same crash would've resulted in permanent injury. Have any hospitalized drivers ever returned to driving? I agree it is ridiculous to require a re-certification process, but not certification in the first place.

[Zatchmo]

I would have thought that, 1.7 million years after I graduated, buggy would have evolved beyond the "drivers are adorable monkeys!" mentality. Notsomuch.

To be fair, I was interpreting the mentality going on here as 'students are adorable little monkeys!' and should not be trusted to make that decision.

If the driver of a buggy involved in an accident is taken to the hospital due to severe injuries, that driver should not attempt to drive a buggy until they have received permission from their doctor that it is safe to do so. The Safety Chairman should verify that this permission has been received.

I can find you two doctors right now, one that will tell me I'm qualified to do X, and one that will tell me I'm not. If I'm clever about how I answer questions, I could switch which told me what. I'm all for trying to avoid liability, but this is too much of a feel-good for me to personally support. Not that anyone is asking. Not that anyone should ask me.

This is also going to make second day races after first day incidents pretty fucking difficult to pull off, and gives an incentive to avoid hospital trips. Drivers are smart. Competitive drivers are very smart. Don't put them in a position to need to lie or risk DQ'ing themselves.

7.2.4: So, with the limted practice time available, you lose a roll to the crash, you lose rolls to getting the buggy fixed, and then you also lose one more to being bagged? On the one hand, this codifies common sense for inexperienced drivers. But high-speed driving is disproportionately difficult, so the fast drivers need all the practice at speed that they can get. If the driver is willing to get back on the horse immediately, a fast roll is more useful practice than a slow one. So leave this one to the safety chair's discretion based on the situation. Also, why is Raceday special? A crash is a crash, right?

Can't say it better, won't try.

[cmhayes]

I agreed wholeheartedly with shafeeq, this rule change is not solving an issue that any of us are aware of. Rachael has bee running the buggy crash test surf this year and has opened my eyes to a few major flaws in student conceptions on carbon fiber strength and harness design. I'm not sure if anyone has seen the video yet, but Rachael has very disturbing footage of what could happen to a driver in a Fringe 2014 type crash with a poorly designed harness system. Bethany hit a curb at race day speed and the crash test dummy was ejected from the front of the buggy due to mounting point failure. This is a buggy that rolled and passed safeties multiple times. I believe it is time that more research was dont into coming up with harness attachment guidelines to ensure no drivers are ejected out the front of a buggy onto the pavement..

[Rachael]

Alright, new idea.

Drivers AND pushers are required to complete a general sports physical before participating in the sport.

[Zatchmo]

Drivers AND pushers are required to complete a general sports physical before participating in the sport.

Without judging the merits of a physical one way or the other...

Coordinating as many as 30-40 occasionally quasi-involved college club members to all go and see a doctor and bring back paperwork. The former chair in me wants a good stiff pour of whiskey, but the alum in me is entertained enough to make up for it.

[rjdavis]

Alright, new idea.

Drivers AND pushers are required to complete a general sports physical before participating in the sport.

And after any buggy related incident that results in hospitalization (or whatever language the sports teams use).

[shafeeq]

To clarify, I do believe that drivers are capable of making an informed decision, but that they are often not provided with enough information to do so. The decisions that come out of sweepstakes suggest that they often do not have or do not understand information that many people here do. If sweepstakes doesn't know it, they can't pass it on in driver's meetings.

The rules do not specify any strength for the harness or its attachments. IMO, the implied requirement is pretty obvious from the required strengths for the rest of the buggy. It never occured to me that someone could possibly interpret it the way Fringe did. But I don't think a working harness would've saved that driver a trip to the hospital. How was her recovery, anyway?