As many of you know, there was more than one accident at the Boulder Peak triathlon a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately one man died of a heart attack during the swim. As well there were a couple of very serious bike accidents, one of which was on the descent of Olde Stage.
Well the reason that I am writing this is because of the very disturbing letter that the race director Barry Siff read to us at the pre race meeting for the 5430 half iron man. This letter was given to him from the emergency crews that were responding to the life threatening accident during the Boulder Peak.
There were two distinct points that I wanted to mention to you all:
When the ambulance and fire trucks were trying to respond to the accident they were nearly uniformly blocked by the athletes on the bike who refused to get over and make room for them to pass.
*Then when they were on the scene literally saving the cyclist’s life, the emergency responders were repeatedly cursed at by several athletes who were told to slow down in order to get around the emergency vehicles that were blocking the course. *
This kind of behavior is completely unacceptable and IMO should be grounds for an immediate DQ! I don’t care if you are headed for the PB of a lifetime, when you hear/see an ambulance in the area, get the hell out of the way and let them by. In addition, when you see emergency responders on the scene or anywhere for that matter, the only thing that you should do is thank them – next time it might be your life they are saving!
Isn’t “Sportman like conduct” and “Language” typically part of the rules?
If so I’m all for DQ’ing them…just for being A-holes. I don’t want to race with people like that. I certainly don’t want to be in an accident around them.
Plain and simple, under NO circumstances is a race result of anytype worth risking somone elses life. Inconvienancing, impeding or in anyway making any type of emergency workers job more difficult is WRONG and you should be yanked from the course…period.
I also think that most races have a clause that says “The RD can do whatever they want”, paraphrased of course. IOW if I was an RD and I saw or heard this type of behavior, you’d be escorted off the course. That’s what they’d have coming to them.
Here’s the ITU rules dealing with the subject. If USAT has a similar rule then a DQ would not be unreasonable, specifically (d), (e), (f).
B.1 General Conduct
Triathlon, Duathlon, Aquathlon, Winter Triathlon and the other related modern multisports
involve many competitors. Race tactics are part of the interaction between
competitors. Competitors will:
a) Practice good sportsmanship at all time s;
b) Be responsible for their own safety and the safety of others;
c) Understand the ITU Competition Rules, available from their NF;
d) Obey traffic regulations and instructions from race officials;
e) Treat other competitors, officials, volunteers, and spectators with respect and
courtesy;
f) Avoid the use of abusive language;
g) If they violate the rules knowingly, report the violation to a race official, and if
necessary retire promptly from the competition;
h) Inform race officials after withdrawing from the race.
I agree that there is no excuse for this. I was at the race and was stopped on the road to allow emergency vehicles past. I was exhausted and had built up a good head of steam after having to push my bike over Old Stage on foot. Stopping was frustrating mentally and phisically demanding to get back to race pace. My only thought was for who ever was on the ground needing the ambulance, and my only words were “Thank You, Sir.” to the officer that stopped us. Many of te people around me had the same comment.
No matter how upset you are at being slowed or stopped, just remember that you could be the one under the car.
Shame on anybody cursing about this. Your day was certainly better than three guys I can think of.
Thank You to the emergancy crews, Police and Volunteers. God Speed to the Injured athletes and their families.
I have to admit that I understand this, sort of. My first reaction to emergency vehicles on a downhill at Alcatraz last year was to be annoyed. When I realized there was an actual accident though, my emotions changed a split second later.
At least give the obnoxious competitors a little slack in that they did not know that there was a life threatening accident on the scene. It takes a moment to switch gears.
I have to admit that I understand this, sort of. My first reaction to emergency vehicles on a downhill at Alcatraz last year was to be annoyed. When I realized there was an actual accident though, my emotions changed a split second later.
At least give the obnoxious competitors a little slack in that they did not know that there was a life threatening accident on the scene. It takes a moment to switch gears.
I suggest they learn to switch gears before cursing at the fireman on the scene. No slack from me.
Well, I can understand your testosterone is running high but seriously; if there’s an ambulance I consider it “serious”. I don’t think the ambulance techs are just driving the course for fun.
As for not being able to get through the road; maybe that’s something the RD should be partly responsible for. They should always have a quick access route; or well placed personnel so that the race could be redirected; or even stopped/slowed down to accomodate the emergency vehicles. What about motorcycles? I see draft marshals on them; why can’t they escort the ambulance? Ride up next to the rider and yell at them to move over or DQ!
“At least give the obnoxious competitors a little slack in that they did not know that there was a life threatening accident on the scene.”
I disagree 100% no freakin’ slack. Red flashing lights and an ambulance, fire truck or ANY emergency vehicle means pull over and give teh right away. I don’t care if there are no lights. Emergency vehicle’s, personel or police officers get there’s FIRST.
It really is beyond my understanding that anyone would even come close to defending someone that apparently cursed at and blocked an emergency vehicle. It’s your race vs possibly someones life, do you really need a second to shift gears on that one? If so maybe those competitors shouldn’t be given the opportunity to shift gears.
Ok maybe I’m not seeing something here. Isn’t “curb right for sirens and lights” pretty much universal? Or is that just Illinois? For the love of god people someone may be DYING, do you need a marshal to tell you to follow the law or get DQ’d. It’s a race…only a race. I don’t care if you have to pull over and eat a freakin’ sandwich and wait for the road to open back up IT’S SOMEONES LIFE WERE TALKING ABOUT.
It takes a second or so to process the entire scene. Of course, you should be able to process the scene before your react. In the Alcatraz case, I certainly did, but the first reaction was to an unexpectedly blocked road on a downhill shortly after coming across a couple of other traffic related exciting moments. It took a couple more seconds to realize that emergency vehicles were blocking. It took me another second to see the bike down and thus realize there was a race related accident.
Obviously I am not proud of my initial reaction of irritation given the circumstances. But no, cursing at the EMT workers is over the top. I would never do that, but I am sure some percentage of competitors would react in a manner they would later regret.
Ok not trying to rip on you, and certainly can’t say I would react differently or better. However if I did react improperly I certainly feel I deserve my punishment and there was NO reason for my response.
That being said, I can see coming upon a road block being a “irritant”, however upon seeing an emergency vehicle do you have to think anymore? IOW “It took me another second to see the bike down and thus realize there was a race related accident.” should never happen. You see an emergency vehicle you do as told or as best to help as you can. First thing you do is slow up and pull right or out of the way. Does it matter why the vehicle is there? Race related or not?
I guess I’m a bit surprise by the number of responses in the thread that lean towards “Oh I can understand that” vs “That was just wrong”. Are these racers teh same ones that refuse to let the emergency vehicles by on the road because it will make them late for work?
I may be making more out of this than it is but to me it’s a complete no brainer. We’re not talking about some car on the course that can’t be recognized. It’s a firetruck or ambulance…with lights flashing and sirens. May as well be a train. Pull over, take teh time hit, call it a day if necessary. My, yours or anybody else’s race is not worth a life.
Obviously should people react as you describe once they understand the situation you would be right. Still, best not to jump to conclusions about someone based upon their split second wrong reaction.
I was once annoyed for a moment by a soup kitchen that attracted homeless to commercial district. It took maybe all of one second to be pissed at myself for reacting that way. They had a right to set up their soup kitchen any place they wanted, and they certainly didn’t need my approval. Unbelievably, one of the organizers of that operation was in the seat next to me on a flight a year later. At least I got the chance to apologize.
These offenders probably would too, given the chance.
The incident is disturbing but not at all surprising. I’m a fireman and see it on every response. These bone heads fail to yield, cut us off, and pull out in front of us constantly. People can’t be inconvieninced for one second. We refer to them as suffocation victims because they drive around with there head up their arse.