Is motocross that dangerous?
March 12, 2008
Well let me tell you, after interviewing riders for our MOTO Magazine feature “Hospital Radio”, I’m pretty sure we all agree the riders are a pretty tough bunch and bounce back from injuries that would put other sportsman packing into retirement.
One small mistake can be costly, broken bones and sometimes a lot worse.
People that know me will understand what I’m going to say, one thing that gets my goat is the number of inexperienced and uninsured photographers that are cropping up at British championship events throughout the country, getting in the way of the guys who are there to do a job and to be perfectly honest having a FREE day out at the races.
Don’t get me wrong it’s great seeing all the images from the day on forums but do these guys really know the risks involved and do they need to be trackside? A number of top photographers shoot from the crowd at most events so why can’t Mr Bloggs with his digital camera he got for his birthday?
Recently Ben Johnson of TMX was hit at the London 02 arena supercross, Ben ended up with a few bruises and a smashed camera, last year at one of the AMA Supercross races another guy was hit flat out by a rider and again ended up with a bruises and smashed camera.
My experience is the same hit once at a supercross event and once at a motocross event, each time I was lucky but this weekend really brought home how dangerous our sport can be. Standing away from the big table top at Donington Park, at a place where I thought was pretty safe – WRONG!
This is what happened, a rider unfortunately decided to part company with his machine over the table top, he went one way and the bike went the other, travelling towards the back of my head at a fair old rate, I heard people screaming but I decided to stay put and pray, next thing I knew the bike is whistling past my left ear crashing to the floor – a complete right off! People said to me after that I calmly walked away but hand on heart I s**t myself and felt in a state of shock for a few minutes.
So the answer to the question is “yes” motocross is dangerous, for the riders and for the officials trackside – if you’re a budding photographer looking to take some sweet pictures of quite possibly the finest sport on the planet follow these simple rules:
1 Get insured to protect you and everyone around you.
2 Get a press card – if you’re not working why should you be trackside, how can you sign on as press if you’re not?
Thanks to Paul Harris for the images
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