Full Throttle

And then there are statistics, which fall on occasion somewhere above damn lies on the unreliable scale.

Considering this is the eve of the 9/11 anniversary I wouldn’t have thought I would find the need to toss a few stones at the NYFD. I also never dreamed the NYFD would have been involved in the political controversy over NASCAR’s attempts to build a facility on Staten Island. But they have.

The Staten Island Advance reports “six people on average die while attending a NASCAR race weekend” The stat is attributed to a study conducted by the NYFD and disclosed during a hearing with Staten Island community boards last Thursday.

The NYFD came up with the “sobering” statistic after an FDNY committee interviewed fire departments in the places where NASCAR developer International Speedway Corp. owns tracks. “That was a statistic that we found just astonishing,” Island Fire Chief Thomas Haring said during Thursday’s meeting.

I got news for ya, bet it would also be “astonding” how many deaths occur after a Yankee’s game as drunken fans fall off the platform waiting for the B Train. ISC owns 12 tracks, that means by the NYFD’s “research” there must have been 72 fan deaths attributed to their racetracks. Why don’t I want’ to believe that? 2 or 3 yea, I’ll even stretch it to 10, but not 72!

“I think their ’six’ needs some more in-depth research, because I wouldn’t lay claim to that at all,” Michael Printup, ISC track manager on the Island, told the Advance. “The last time I heard of a death was the year I left Michigan, so June of 2005 there was a death, and what happened was that guy had a heart attack late at night.”

Yea, I should think more in-depth research is in order.

“It’s an aspect of this track that hasn’t been discussed, and that is: The demand on essential services,” said City Councilman James Oddo

An increase of 6 deaths, assuming that number is true and can be extrapolated to NYC, would create extra demand? 6 deaths!

Well frankly I’m not surprised, Oddo has been a stanch opponent of the track along with Clown-cilman Andrew Lanza. Both are probably wetting their pants with the thought of scaring the residents of “The Bald-Headed Stepchild” by claiming dead bodies will litter their front yards like Maple leaves in the fall.

Thanks, but no thanks is a decision I made about this project last April and nothing in this report has weakened that. You have to admire NASCAR’s and ISC’s bull-headedness in still trying to push this thru. They obviously think the market is worth the trouble.

Then there’s the little matter of 100 mil or better they paid for the land that would have to be swallowed. Not a small number even for the cash-cow of ISC.

Staten Island, NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Sports, Busch Series, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle