smackboy1

Does anyone know of published data, actuarial tables or similar information about the statistical risk of injury/fatality for participants in DE or club racing? I would be curious to know how on track driving compares to other traditionally high risk activities like SCUBA, skydiving, or piloting a private plane. Or for that matter how it compares to more mundane activities like skiing/snowboarding, crossing the street, struck by lightning, randomly audited by the IRS etc.

RonCT

Just making a guess, but I bet you are more likely to get T-boned by somebody blowing through a stop sign than you are to have an incident at a DE (can't comment on racing - don't know).

Greg Fishman

not a large enough sample size in PCA but there might be statistics for SCCA.

kurt M

Sport SCUBA is not high risk. Advanced diving is to some extent depending on the conditions and the divers skill and training. Snow sports on the other hand are far from mundane and are likely higher % of injury. I did both for many years and my stats followed the snow hurts more than water rule.


Racing and DE. I might bet that folks would hold the info tight to reduce any ammo for ins co. and lawsuits.

RickBetterley

Great question; in all of my talking with insurance companies and agents/brokers, I have yet to see any data available about DE loss experience. Racing experience is kept by the relevant specialty insurers, but that is far different from DE.
I'll also bet that some of us could pretty easily estimate a frequency rate for DE crashes, though the severity of those crashes ($ severity) would not be so easy. Without severity, frequency wouldn't mean much.
BTW, if there are insurers with this info, they are unlikely to release it, since having it is a competitive advantage for them.

MJR911

At the Glen race 2 years ago someone in the know told me that the stats came out to be something like 1 major wreck per event per 100 cars... averaged out over the entire year and all tracks.

that is worth what you paid for it.

MJR911

I worry more about towing than I do racing the car at the track.

1AS

There are data on ski accidents at physician conferences. They average one significant injury per 200 participant days. Therefore, for a 3-day conference with 200 docs, three injuries would be expected.

From past experience, big vintage events like the Brian Redman Classic at Road America attract about 600 entrants. They may have 3 serious injuries over the week-end, so that would be about one/third as risky for doctors to race versus skiing.

It is very likely thee are at least 9 mangled cars, so that would be about the same ratio as doctors skiing.

Doctors at ski resorts aren't necessarily as competent at that activity as random drivers at DE. My conclusion is that skiing is more risky than DE or vintage racing. By the way, I think bicycling is also riskier, when you look at all the head and neck injuries. AS

smackboy1

I have to believe that insurance companies have all this actuarial data in order to come up with policy premiums. But I've always wondered why life insurance companies universally ask about 4 activities: SCUBA, car racing, skydiving and piloting private planes. Is the risk of an accident for those 4 so much greater than others, or is it that any accident during such an activity carries a greater chance of death?


I guess a better way to ask my question as: 1) what is the probability of an accident; 2) once there is an accident, what are the probabilities of the different types injuries or death. Do we have any actuaries in the audience? C'mon, someone cough up the data!

M758

Well maybe I am lucky, but in my area I have been attending DE's and Racing over the past 8 years. In that time I have seen very few injuries due to incidents. Seems to me that it is much lower than 1 in 200. Crashs both minor and major happen more frequently, but injuries seem very rare.

The intesting thing is I have been injured much more from mountian biking even lifting tires around than from on track stuff. Of course it maybe rather easy skin a knee or hurt you back mounting biking or lifting tires than chances that those will kill you are pretty rare.


Dangerious activities need to be brokend down in to at least two groups
1) risk of minor injuries that will heal in short order
2) risk of life threatening or debilitatiing injuries that last a life time

BTW... real data should be seperated by type of racing too. IE I personally thing oval racing is more dangerious than road racing due to the proximity of solid objects (ie walls).

bobt993

According to prior DE underwriters (now gone of course), statistics were in the .75 % ( a little less than 1%). That confirms what was said prior. If you look at the rates quoted when DE insurance was pretty common, that worked out somewhere between 2-3% of the vehicles worth (less deductable).

MJR911

To qualify, I was speaking of racing incidents (wrecks) NOT injuries.

Mussl Kar

Is it true that the more advanced drivers crash more often? My two trips to Lime Rock had an advanced or instructor level driver total a car at each event.

RickBetterley

Guess it depends on how you define the term 'advanced.'
There seem to be a lot of crashes in White and up when compared with the instructed levels.

M758

what tracks you run will also play a role. On some tracks a off track is not likely to result in contact. On other tracks any off is likely to result in bent sheetmetal or worse.