Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

(And note that the handling of Chris Walker at Sugo last Sunday was no better, so it isn’t just a Suzuka problem, it’s country-wide.)

(Other readers who sent reactions to this same deal, please re-send those e-mails, which were lost due to a technical problem.)

From an e-mail:

The recent loss of Daijiro Kato at the opening MotoGP race at Suzuka Circuit, Japan is a tragedy of criminal proportions, not only because the world has lost a very talented 27-year-old rider, but because his injuries were very likely aggravated by his handling post-crash by turnworkers at Suzuka.

I’m an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician), which is the lowest medical certification that a health-care worker can hold, but I am also a member of the National Motorcycle Patrol, which are the blue NMP jackets working all AFM and many AMA races in Northern California. I have tended to hundreds of fallen riders at Sears Point, Thunder Hill, Button Willow, and Laguna and I have never seen a rider with the “mechanism of injury” (IE: being spit-off a motorcycle at high speed) that Kato sustained, simply tossed onto a stretcher with no regard for cervical immobilization.

I have tended to fallen racers who have become almost combative with me because of the caution we are trained to exhibit in this type of injury, but cautious we have to be and Kato is am example of what happens when that caution is ignored. The most recent information released on Kato’s death noted that he had a fractured C1 vertebra. The upper cervical vertebra (C1 & C2) house the portion of the spinal nerve that controls involuntary motor functions: That is breathing and heartbeat. When the fractured vertebra is allowed to move and cut the spinal nerve, the patient no longer has respiration nor pulse. It doesn’t appear that cornerworkers even bothered to check Kato’s vitals before tossing his unconscious body on a stretcher to get him out of the area so the race could continue.

It is lucky for those malfeasant track workers that Japan has almost no civil litigation. The Japanese tradition is to apologize to your victims and their families publicly. I can’t see how a country that advanced can be so draconian at the same time.

Rene LaPrevotte
AFM #44W
Novato, California