Här är en film som visar vad som hände. Jag lider med alla inblandade. Tydligen så var det is under all gyttjan så bilen tappade fästet. Otroligt nog så klarade sig alla fyrbenta bra och de flesta av två beningarna med förutom att Cat Manzi har fått sprickor i några revben och fått en punkterat lunga. Jim Pantaleano har brutit en axel och ett fotled. Helt otroligt att det inte gick värre. Länk till artikel om det hela
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Freehold Spill, What Went Wrong?
By Bill Finley and Christie DeBernardis
In an incident that was both terrifying and strange, six
drivers went down at Freehold yesterday when the starting
gate car skidded out of control in the first turn and collided
into several horses during the fifth race.
It appears that driver Cat Manzi took the worst of it among
the drivers. Having only recently returned form another
accident, the 63-year-old driver reportedly was suffering from
a collapsed lung. Freehold director of racing and racing secretary Karen
Fagliarone told the nj.com website that Manzi was ”in
complete agony.”
As the field of seven trotters headed into the first turn on
the sloppy surface, that driver of the starting gate car Robert
Blum lost control of the vehicle. Over the slick and,
apparently icy track, the car started to slide and headed
straight toward the field of horses. Only one horse, Civic
Duty, driven by James Clarry, eluded the car. Manzi’s horse,
Big Sky Angelina, slammed into the wings of the starting
gate, which began a chain reaction with horses and drivers
crashing into the gate and falling over one another.
”Thirty years of racing horses and I have never seen a car
coming at me,” said driver Rick Pantano, who escaped
serious injury. ”That’s something you’re never prepared for.
Most drivers have hit the ground and when you do you kind
of know what’s coming. You feel something is not right. In
this case it was completely different. You a see car spin out
and just can’t get your horse out of the way fast enough. It
was overwhelming.”
Efforts to reach Manzi were not successful but several
sources said that he had a collapsed lung and fractured ribs.
After suffering a broken pelvis in an accident in September,
Mustang Manzi had returned from the sidelines Nov. 29.
According to his wife Christie, driver Jim Pantaleano was
complaining of pain in his shoulder and ankle. At the time
she was reached by HRU the driver had yet to be x-rayed.
”He busted his shoulder up again, the same shoulder he
busted up in his last accident,” Christie Pantaleano said.
”His right ankle is busted. I don’t know if anything is broken
yet. He is in a lot of pain. Other than that, I don’t know
anything.”
The other drivers involved reported nothing more than
bumps and bruises. None of the horses involved in the
accident were seriously hurt.
The early morning temperatures in Central New Jersey
yesterday hovered around the freezing mark and a steady
drizzle created icy and wet conditions. While the horses
seemed to be able to negotiate the turn the same can’t be
said for the starting gate car as it clearly was done in by
the conditions.
”We don’t know what happened. It was definitely a freak
mishap. Something I’ve never seen in 40 years in racing,”
Fagliarone told nj.com.
Afterward, questions were raised as to whether or not
management should have been proactive and canceled
the card due to the conditions.
”In my opinion, they shouldn’t have been racing,” Christie
Pantaleano said. ”I ran down from the paddock onto the
track and when I hit the track I almost slipped and fell. It
was a sheet of ice.”
”I’ve raced on tracks like this before, but in hindsight
maybe they should never race when tracks get like that,”
said driver Chris Scicluna, who also escaped serious injury.
“It was very sloppy and pretty deep. That might be fine for
the horses. They weren’t slipping in it but for a car going at
that speed going around a turn like that it wasn’t OK.”
Another issue that was being raised yesterday was the car
itself. While some tracks are now using SUVs and other
vehicles that can handle difficult conditions, the Freehold
vehicle is a standard sedan without four-wheel drive.
”We don’t have a four-wheel drive starting car,” Pantano
said. ”If anything that should be mandatory at every track,
especially in bad weather. Today the track was thawing out;
the track was getting deeper and deeper. There’s no doubt
that’s what happened,. The footing was not good and the car
just could not get out of it’s own way.”
The remainder of the card was canceled after the accident