Photographer injured at drifting event - donation account setup

[Jacob Leveton]

Hey guys -

this is news I hoped I'd never have to spread... but over the weekend, a photographer from atlanta named Matt Campbell was injured at a drifting event. Long story short, a car lost control and he was looking the other way. He's in the hospitol now, from what I can piece together, sounds like 2 broken legs, broken finger, some lacerations to his head, possibly a fractured vertebrae (one person told me this, not sure if it's true), but no major internal damage. He's concious and stable in the hospitol, but it will be a long road of recovery for him.

A paypal account was setup - Please send all donations to vtechkidd@yahoo.com. In the Subject line please put: Matt Campbell (http://forums.importatlanta.com/showthread.php?t=91636)

Some updates are being posted over on the Import Atlanta forum:
http://forums.importatlanta.com/showthread.php?t=91603
http://forums.importatlanta.com/showthread.php?t=91640

I'll try and keep everyone updated as I find out.

his portfolio:
http://www.atlantaperformancephotography.com/

[John Thawley]

Hey, Matt is a user here on the APN Forum.

Please keep us updated on his progress.

JT

[Jim Sykes]

Share with us the long story and the details, it might actually help someone else that might be doing the same thing on a regular bassis at the track.

Was he behind a barrier? Leaning on a barrier? Standing too close to it? What was he looking at? Chimping? Was he in a position that is an obvious impact area? Was he in an area that it looked like a car would never end up in?

Give us some details so that everyone can think of these things when they go shoot so we dont have to see a thread like this again.

[Andrew Sproull]

Share with us the long story and the details, it might actually help someone else that might be doing the same thing on a regular bassis at the track.

Was he behind a barrier? Leaning on a barrier? Standing too close to it? What was he looking at? Chimping? Was he in a position that is an obvious impact area? Was he in an area that it looked like a car would never end up in?

Give us some details so that everyone can think of these things when they go shoot so we dont have to see a thread like this again.

from what i've heard he was on the outside of a turn with his back to the on coming cars snapping shots of another corner

[Jim Sykes]

Behind a wall? Did the wall move and hit him or did the car hit him?

[Andrew Sproull]

Behind a wall? Did the wall move and hit him or did the car hit him?
no wall, parking lot drifting event

[Jacob Leveton]

I wasn't there, I'm getting mixed information on how it happened and such, so I'm trying to stay out of it. But what I can tell, what Andrew mentioned is true - he was on the outside of one corner, shooting photos of another corner, and didn't see the car coming. He WAS in a designated photo position.

[Andrew Sproull]

I wasn't there, I'm getting mixed information on how it happened and such, so I'm trying to stay out of it. But what I can tell, what Andrew mentioned is true - he was on the outside of one corner, shooting photos of another corner, and didn't see the car coming. He WAS in a designated photo position.

well if he was in a designated photo area, that was very poor planning on someones part to have one there

[Jim Sykes]

Well, designated or not, with walls around or not, then:

on the outside of a turn with his back to the on coming cars snapping shots of another corner

Should be lesson number one of what NOT to do when shooting.

C'mon folks, use common sense out there.

I'd assume that course design wont be used again.

[Dennis Murray]

From a quick skim, and some googliing, it seems like this would have been "Drift Fury 4" at the Turner Field parking lots.

From the threads on the groups referring to "Above" and "Below" it sounds like it was the Blue lot at Turner Field, which is actually the site of the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium where Hank Aaron hit #715.

I really couldn't find anything about "Drift Fury" (their site has been disabled due to bandwidth excess) and as a sanctioning body what type of insurance they provide for workers or what their liability waiver is. I know Turner Field and the Atlanta Region SCCA has had some run-ins regarding Solo events at the venue, and they run clean events.

Interestingly for being a parking lot, they were charging admission.

[Jacob Leveton]

most drifting events lately have been in parking lots and do charge a small admission fee. even Formula D, the 1 major 'pro' drifting series has had events in parking lots that had admission fees charged for the past 3 years (although that is going away next year). It's hard to get spectator AND drift-friendly courses at an affordable price.

If you want to get really investigative, I can give you the names / numbers of the organizers. But i'm sure they're getting flooded with calls, i'm not sure how much information you'll be able to get out of them since I'm sure they're well aware of possible looming legal action (mostly civil).

The company has been around for a little more than a year, and they recently signed a contract to be the 'official' licensing series for the newly-formed NOPI drift series. But I don't believe they were under NOPI's insurance policy at the time.

[John Thawley]

With all due respect, since we don't have first hand information, I'm going to close this thread. I don't think it's wise to get involved in uninformed speculation and inuendo. Matt is a member of this forum, so perhaps when the time is right he'll give us is view of the events and circumstances leading up to the accident.

Meanwhile, I'd also like to state that while APN wishes Matt a speedy recovery, we are not endorsing the request for donations as we have no facts or knowledge of the specifics of how these funds are being collected or managed.

Again, we wish Matt a speedy recovery.

JT