Accident on the last lap of the IndyCar race this afternoon. Dario rode over Sato's rear wheel and seriously tangled with the catch fencing sending pieces of car and fencing into spectator grandstand. Dario awake and alert with reported ankle injury, 15 spectators reported with minor injuries from debris.

IndyCar said one series official was taken to a hospital to be treated for minor injuries, and Houston Fire Department spokesman Ruy Lozano said 13 fans suffered injuries, with two transported to hospitals. Franchitti has two fractured vertebra that will not require surgery, a fractured right ankle, and a concussion. He will be held overnight at the hospital.

It was big and ugly. Lucky Dario or a fan wasn't killed.It could have been a lot worse .

Glad it wasn't as bad as it looked injury-wise.

I suspect Dario will call it quits.

Local news report from down here.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/fr...z/-/index.html

damn! not much time to react there......that could have been quite a bit worse! seems that those stands will probably be moved waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back next year, that is if they are allowed to renew their insurance policy!

Even with the street circuit, the catch fence kept the car inside the track, and the tub held-up well too for Dario. Man, those cars just disintegrate. Things happen so fast. Prayers to everyone involved.

This is why it drives me crazy/scares the crap out of me that tracks don't have track personnel or deputies keeping people away from the fence. Every track that I go to except Clay County (I think), you can walk right up to the catch fence. I have seen kids and adults right next to and in some cases leaning on the fence as cars were going by. What needs to be done is erect a second fence 6-8 feet back from the catch fence to keep fans back. It only needs to be 3 or 4 feet tall, just enough to keep people back. In the Houston wreck, people would have probably still had had debris hitting them, because of the carbon fiber coming apart, but there was at least one woman reported to be stuck under the fence. I was at the THAT All Star race a few years ago when cars got into and wiped out the catch fence in front of the grandstands. Had there been anyone standing against the fence like often happens, it would have been tragic. After that race I sent an email to the Vigo fair board asking them to look into putting up a fence, and basically got a reply thanking me for my concern.

I believe that the woman stuck under the fencing may have been in the stands. A large portion of the fence flew into the grandstands.

Lot of the debris SHOULD have been contained, but they did not have cables going through that stretch of fencing.