[thstone]

The first thing that I want to make clear is that I fully believe that we all take responsibility when we enter the track.

But after talking with a couple of friends about this case, I wanted to convey what some people believe will be the basis for the rider's claim of gross negligence;

The rider will claim that the sandbags were never intended to be part of the track run off area. The rider will present evidence showing that the design of the track never included sandbags in those areas.

Thus, the rider will claim that the sandbags created an "artificial obstacle" that either caused/contributed to him crashing or caused his crash to more serious than would have occurred if the area had been maintained consistent with intended design of track runoff areas - meaning plain dirt/gravel.

Furthermore, the rider will claim that the sandbags were not placed there to improve the safety of the racers but to accomodate rain. Therefore, the safety of the sandbags had never been properly evaluated in terms of risk and the potential for reducing safety, and thus, they should have been removed after any threat of rain had passed to avoid creating an artificial obstacle in run off area.

Your thoughts?