Ten fans were injured when a cable holding an overhead Fox television camera snapped, falling into the grandstand as well onto the Charlotte Motor Speedway racing surface during Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600.
NASCAR Charlotte 2013: Fans injured when TV cable snaps during Coca-Cola 600
A cable holding a suspended television camera over Charlotte Motor Speedway broke during the Coca-Cola 600 and fell onto the track, injuring several fans and damaging the car of race leader Kyle Busch.
In a statement released by the track, 10 fans were reported to have been injured with seven being treated and released with what were classified as “minor cuts and scrapes.” Three fans were taken to a local hospital for further evaluation.
The race was under the green flag when on Lap 122 the cable broke, hitting a number of cars including that of leader Kyle Busch. His No. 18 Toyota sustained significant damage on the right-side with Busch telling his crew that his car was “killed.”
NASCAR red-flagged the race on Lap 126 and during the stoppage Busch got out of his car and retrieved a cell phone to take a picture of the damage to show his crew so they could plan repairs.
In an unprecedented step, officials allowed teams 15 minutes to fix their cars without losing their position.
The race was delayed for 26 minutes before being resumed. In the official box score the reason for the caution was listed as “debris on the frontstretch.”
Fox released a statement Sunday night on the incident citing unexplained equipment failure and has suspended the use of that particular camera. The network has also launched a full investigation.
”At this time, we do not have a cause for the failure of the camera drive line that interrupted tonight’s Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and our immediate concern is with the injured fans.
The camera system consists of three ropes -- a drive rope which moves the camera back and forth, and two guide ropes on either side. The drive rope failed near the Turn 1 connection and fell to the track. The camera itself did not come down because guide ropes acted as designed. A full investigation is planned, and use of the camera is suspended indefinitely.
This camera system had been used successfully at this year’s Daytona 500, last week’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and other major events around the world. We certainly regret that the system failure affected tonight’s event, we apologize to the racers whose cars were damaged, and our immediate concern is for the race fans. We also offer a sincere ‘thank you’ to the staff at CMS for attending to the injuries and keeping us informed on this developing situation.
When we have more information on the cause of the equipment failure, we will share it with you immediately.”
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