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Having been involved in auto racing since before woman where allowed in the pits I personally am having difficulty with the new rule to allow small children in the pits during racing activity. While this practice that now seems to be the norm may work for teams that travel in totter type rigs that have living accommodations in them. IMHO it doesn't work in the pits of race tracks like Oswego Speedway when such rigs have to be removed for the racing activity and the children are left to roam freely during racing activity, as I witnessed in mid July during the King of Wings race.
Ironically, last Wed. I was sitting with one of my girlfriends who's husband and son-in-law are push truck drivers at Oswego Speedway when another friend called to say she had been invited to take her four year old son into the track with her on Thursday for a four hour practice. For those of you that have never attended a supermodified race at Oswego full size pick up trucks are used to push start the supers. Having children roam the pits is a very dangerous situation. Needless to say when I hung up my phone, I heard in length from my girlfriend who's family pushes at Oswego how unsafe it is to have children in the pits. She didn't have to sell me, we had a crew member that would bring his son in the pits even though he was under age, sure enough he was injured one week doing something he shouldn't have been doing. So my views of children in the pits were formed years ago, in most cases it is an unsafe situation. In the end my girlfriend took her son in the pits before racing started but watched practice from the stands, another mother however had her under two year old toddler in the pits during practice.
I wonder if she thought twice about taking her small child in the pits when she turned on the evening news in Oswego last Wed.. Last Wed. afternoon a small child was hit by a car an fighting for their life in what first was reported as a hit an run accident. As the events of this tragic accident unfolded the 21 year old driver that hit the child had no idea they had hit a baby. (Here is where the irony came into play for me, I had just had this conversation with my girlfriend earlier that day about push truck drivers not being able to see small chidren roaming around the pits at Oswego). As my brother and I sat there listening to the evening news and learned that this accident happended on Cayuga St., my brother turned to me and asked me how I came home? He was the first to tell me that Cayuga St. was blocked off by the police at Liberty St. a block and a half away from my brothers house. When my brother told me that my breath was taken away, I have a cousin that lives in that area who has two small granddaughters that come to visit him. This tragic accident actually happend two houses away from my cousin's, the baby that was first reported to be a year and a half old was two. This precious little child died from his injuries on Friday. While this tragic accident is not racing related there is a message here.
If you take your small child into the pits at any race track think twice about this practice, small children are usually very active with short attention spans; in my opinion small children don't belong in the pits during racing activity unless they have some type of RV type hauler to stay in. What do you think,? We had a seven page thread on putting blankets down at the the race track before the nights events, can we have a seven page thread on the safety of our children and grandchildren at the races?
Safe racing to all,
Patti
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