Colton Herta is lucky to be able to walk away from the horrifying crash during practice for the Indy 500. Herta attempted to make an adjustment when he lost the back end of his Honda, cashing into the wall and becoming airborne.
Indy 500 driver unharmed after terrifying airborne crash
It’s remarkable the driver was okay.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Somehow, there was no serious issue following the wreck. Herta told Indy Star that not only was he fine immediately following the wreck, but will still drive on Sunday in his team’s backup car.
“It happened really fast. I’m fine,” Herta said. “I’d be fine going right back out there, but the car is destroyed.”
The fact he was able to walk away from the accident unscathed is a testament to safety innovations added to race cars in recent years. The advent of the “halo” device in Formula 1 has saved lives in recent years, and these kind of changes have allowed drivers to walk away from accidents that otherwise would have been disastrous.
As for Herta, he remarked at these improvements.
“Very impressive,” Herta said of the safety built into Indy cars. “It was 60 or 70 gs of a hit, very impressive when you can hit that and still be standing and fine and no major injuries. (The safety workers) were there very fast to roll me back over; that’s the worst feeling as a driver is hanging there upside down.
This is truly remarkable.
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