No single cause to blame for fatal Hubert crash says the FIA

Hubert

No single cause to blame for fatal Hubert crash says the FIA

FIA conclude investigation

Sam Hall

Friday 7 February 2020 16:08

The FIA have concluded their investigation into the cause of the ultimately fatal crash of Anthoine Hubert at Spa Francorchamps during the 2019 Belgium Grand Prix weekend, an accident which involved three other drivers including Juan Manuel Correa.

Motorsport is an inherently dangerous past time and thankfully incidents such as that which occurred on the Saturday August 31.

Fortunately, procedures are in place to investigate the causes of crashes and the reasons for what happens next - whether this be a small, relatively innocuous incident, or the tragic worst case scenario of that particular day in Belgium.

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In their findings, the FIA - whose report goes into extreme detail about the incident - ultimately found that there was no single factor that was solely to blame for the incident, but that it was more a build up of factors that resulted in this particular scenario.

In summary, the findings of the investigation are as follows: • A chain of events resulted in a protracted and complex crash sequence involving four drivers, which ultimately led to a high-speed ‘T-Bone’ type impact between the cars of Juan Manuel Correa and Anthoine Hubert. • The dynamics of the car-to-car impact in terms of speed and trajectory were such that an extremely high level of energy was transferred and dissipated, translating into non-survivable trauma to Anthoine Hubert and very serious injuries to Juan Manuel Correa. • There was no single specific cause but multiple contributory factors giving rise to the severity of the accident were identified, following a detailed analysis of the various phases of the accident. • The investigation found no evidence that any driver failed to react appropriately in response to the yellow flag signal or to the circumstances on track. • The reaction of marshals and race control in deploying signaling and rescue services in relation to the accident is considered timely and good.

Adding to the summary of their findings, the FIA statement added, "Safety improvement is a continuous process, therefore conclusions drawn from this accident and others like it from around the world will be integrated into the ongoing work of the FIA to further develop motor sport safety.

"In 2019 the FIA Safety department conducted investigations into 28 serious and fatal accidents related to circuit racing, supported by the ASN (National Sporting Authority) in each country."

The full FIA statement can be found here.

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