For anyone asking why he's locking at the worst place possible. First, he didn't notice keith's car because of the cars that have passed keith before, then he didn't expect keith's car to roll back to the middle of the track. You might be asking "then why he's not turning instead of braking". First of all, this is not GT or modern DTM type of car that has a lot of downforce and huge brake to make a very sudden moves. In theory, he would've understeer or overreacted that could nit hurt himself, but maybe keith too.
Because of his British racing background, and unlike most other competitors in the German series, Kieth was racing a right hand drive touring car, he could've lived if he was sitting in the left side...
You're very likely correct, just like in NASCAR only backwards drivers side door facing oncoming traffic always makes me hold my breath, this is a classic example why and the reason most series are mandating that the driver is moved closer to the center line of the roll cage. Safety has always been a moving target.
Oh my! I didn't know that, and makes the accident, so much worse. It confused me seeing left hand drivers in some of the clip. I assumed they were all left side steering. Makes sense now.
The big factor IMO was the circuit itself, the Avus track was unbelievably dangerous and in no fit state at the time to host races, you simply cannot race at breakneck speeds on a narrow bit of Tarmac between two concrete walls because as demonstrated, any car that hits it has no other way to go than right back into the middle of the pack with the potential of utter chaos, no run-off areas whatsoever. You could say the same about Monaco but at least there they have sufficient run off areas at every fast corner and potential overtake spots Plus I'm siding with the argument that Biela was unsighted and saw O'Dor way too late to react sufficiently, if it were you in the car, what would your very first natural instincts make you do? Of course, Slam the brakes on hard, you don't make sudden turns at full speed otherwise you have a potentially bad (if not worse) accident
I agree. Isn't it the same part of the track where John winter had his wreck in 1994? In that case the barrier has been moved closer to the track. (not that it mattered in this case)
Monaco has runoff at the fast corners? The fastest corner at Monaco is Tabac. There's no run-off there. Overall, however, Monaco is a much slower circuit than Avus. Avus was rather hair-raising. Still, it was an unlucky set of circumstances that led to this fatal accident. Cars do sometimes come to rest in the middle of the track and get broadsided no matter how safe the track layout. They had a fatality in GT racing at Paul Ricard a few years ago;. That accident was caused by a crashed car being hit by a following car, despite Paul Ricard being a massive car park. Incidentally, it strikes me as disgraceful that there wasn't a medical car on scene within 30s or so given that the accident happened just a short distance past the pit exit (not that it would have made any difference, sadly).
That is amongst the most alarming action on this clip. That is, many of the drivers just proceeded through the wreckage at speed despite the pedestrians on the track. Poor regard for Life.
Some people depict Biela as a gruesome murderer, which is just outright wrong. Biela may not have seen O'dor in time, given that there is a corner before the scene. The AVUS was a pretty fast track anyway, though had there been yellow flags in time, Biela may have had more time to break. It's not like Frank felt no remorse for the accident. For years he said in interviews that he felt horrible about the whole thing and that it'll haunt him for the rest of his life.
And at speeds from 120 to 140+. He probably thought he was gonna roll forward a little too but misjudged at a very high speed sometimes things happen to quick for you to react in time. Horrible accident.
Ich habe das Rennen damals live im Fernsehen gemeinsam mit meinen Großeltern angeschaut. Die Hoffnungen von Thomas Voigt haben sich leider nicht bestätigt. Kieth O'dor erlag zwei Tage später seinen schweren Verletzungen.
"Wo ist der Artzt?" Genau! For whatever you can say about the actual incident, the lack of emergency response is diabolical. Kieth wasn't dead at this point. A quicker response from the doctors and ambulances could have saved him.
At the moment when the commentator asks where the doctor is a doctor was already tending to him but he couldn't be seen because he entered the car through the left side door, which you can't see in the angle. The right side of the car was completely destroyed by the impact.
That's not true, the car was so badly damaged that the marshals had to spend around a half hour to get him out. If a doctor was there they couldn't have done anything.
Ich war damals elf Jahre alt und schon von Motorsport begeistert,das war der erste fatale Unfall den ich live miterlebt habe. Ich weis noch wie geschockt ich war, traurig und unruhig,aber ich wusste dass es dazu gehört.
The problem is that O'dors Car starts mpving backwards but then turns to end up vertical to the track, Biela had about 1.1 sec to react at the speed ha had (at least 130 kph at full throttle through the right hander) and as he steps on the breaks he does it at instinct. Not much chance to stop... -_- R.I.P O'dor
His tires were smoking from, slamming the brakes 0:25 and definitely was slowing down. The blue car was spinning, awkwardly on the 1 & a half lane track. Absolutely no room, or time to slow. The suspension failed on the blue car. RIP to the fallen.
I had the chance to meet all three Nissan drivers Keith Odor, Ivan Capelli and Sascha Massen just weeks before at Hockenheim and let them sign my Nissan Cap, that I still keep in memory. This crash was really tragic and I couldn't believe it.
OMG, I'm still horrified by the memory of watching this race live on TV...very sad. While I do not personally know any of these admirable drivers, I will never forget them or what happened.
You dont have the slightest bit of expertise on being a marshal, right? First of all you cant see the marshalpost in the shot. Thats where marshals HAVE TO stay. So your assumption they didnt wave a flag is BS. Second: Why should the wave the surface flag? Doesnt make any sense at all. Yellows/Doubleyellows are more restrictive than surfaceflags. Additionally, if you look at the direction they are approaching from, it is clear their post is close to the crashsite. No yellow flag waved their would have changed a damn thing. Racedrivers look at where they are going and
It's impossible to blame Biela here, the cars were at an incredibly high speed, and Biela was unsighted due to the cars in front of him. As soon as the cars in front of Biela moved around O'dor, O'dor's car veered across the track. Biela had next to no time to react, and his natural instinct, as anyone's would be was to step on the brakes as fast as possible. His brain had no time to tell him to move around O'dor's car.
@@siniydenYep, very bad job, 2 cars were able to avoid him, one with little room and time, as you said amateurish, that's what new drivers do all of the time, panic braking!
I remember this incident. You know, often there's these crashes, and these result in the commentator stating who was very lucky to get away with it, sometimes minor injuries, or even without any at all. And then, the odds strike just when you don't expect. The car that hit the wall was just left at the wrong spot, too many cars had to pass by, not all lucky enough to avoid that car.
When you see a car spinning in front of you, you aim for it. I bet Biela kept it in straight line since he expected O'Dor to slide all the way across to the left. But O'Dor was slowing down to a stop already and Biela couldn't see when the accident actually started and how much speed O'Dor was still carrying during his slide.
@@keveb4724Racers like rallying drivers don't use ABS, thay want full control of all aspects of the braking system, not some computer deciding that, ABS is for the less skilled, and for the majority who are poorly skilled.
Fucking hell, this comment section is cancer... Everyone says " he should've done this he should've done that" "i would've done this or that" easy to say behind your keyboards. I wonder how you would react in that split second moment if you were really in that situation see how you would react then. I'm pretty sure you would lock up your brakes and have no time to think about maybe lifting your foot of the brake pedal .. *Also, if you look closely, he was sliding when he locked up, so even if he released his brakes there would be no way he could evade him*
This wasn't just "bad luck." The AVUS track was horribly dangerous, walls on both sides right on the edge of the track the whole way round. There was nowhere for crashed cars to go but right back into the middle of the track. Thankfully now closed after this accident and a number of others in the mid-90s.
Es ist eine Stadtstrecke. Ganz normal. Die Autos waren nicht sicher genug und das er Rechtslenker gefahren ist. Das hätte auch auf anderen Strecken passieren können.
To me it looks like he wasn't looking at the road in front of him at that moment, it looks like he reacted very late, hence the hard braking reaction when he spotted one car stopped in the middle of the road. He was probably looking at the mirrors, or the dashboard switching something in the cockpit because in a straight line is the only time a racing driver can do work on other things a part from just focusing on driving through the next corner.
I'm not even an amateur armchair QB when it comes to motorsports, but it looks to me like he had ample passing room on the left, if he'd noticed sooner. There was a large, flat piece of debris to the left, but better that than this horrible crash. And yeah, if he could have veered just a bit, he might have spun, but he would have avoided that deadly T-bone to the door.
YonnyMestampo well yes, but Keith was going straight backwards, not turning but then he slide to the right, in front of the other drive, hence the hard braking and not swerving. He had no clue what was going to have happened
It's neithers fault... That was just a plain racing incident. I don't have to say why because you can think and if you were him, you might have done the same. It is unfortunate but what really made me sad is he's very passionate about racing and he died in the place that he love, and doing the thing that he love. You have to remember in motorsports, we take all the risk regardless of safety eventhough it has been improved. R.I.P. Keith
I agree to how you see things in this case. I know Frank Biela because he drove for us this season. He has a really good personality and in my opinion he wasto a wrong time at a wrong place. He just break down the car. Imagine yourself in that situation you wouldn't behave in a different way. You just see a car which is rolling into your way at a speed of maybe 200. It's a reflex to put the hell out of the breaks...in this case it was not avoidable... RIP Kieth O'dor.
3 cars that were right behind O'dor could avoid him without crashing into him, while Biela who had O'dor in plain sight for at least 3 seconds before crashing into him could not? Seems like a very rookie mistake of not looking and then panic braking at the very last moment. Avoidable accident, as was proven by the other 3 cars.
It happend at the 1995 AVUS Circuit (we know about that track) we will miss Kieth O'Dor and also the other racing drivers that passed away who did their favorite thing... (if people say crashing they're idiots but I won't call them idiots I'll say racing to correct them)
He had to lift his foot off the brake to get his steering back it goes agianst yr instincts. It's hard to judge this situation tho. Once I was sliding strait for a parked car in the wet and did lift off and missed the car.
look at the inboard recording. 0:08 the blue car in front is the one from Kieth O'dor...and look closely he just drives straight like Senna did back then... either something is broken in the frame or steering or tire damage he already had a medical problem there.
R.I.P. ich sah den Unfall bei der Übertragung...bin heute immer noch geschockt....echt böse...Aber Frank Biela..konnte nichts dafür. So schnell kann ein Rennwagen nicht ausweichen...nicht bei diesen Geschwindigkeiten. Ein Drama...
ein Audi davor zeigte,dass es möglich ist.Er will zuerst rechts vorbei.Sieht, dass das Auto dorthin rollt und lenkt links vorbei. Rennfahrer haben oft bewiesen,dass sie extrem ausweichen können.Machbar ist es also...nur kann man nicht erwarten,dass sie immer schnell genug reagieren.
Das is n Unterschied. Audi 1 war unmittelbar davor. Frank biela musste durch die quamwolke der Reifen. Bist du schon mal durch Rauch gefahren? Nich labern, denken.
@@holgersturm9368 die davor hatten extrem wenig Zeit zu reagieren.Einer reagierte so schnell,dass er sogar die Seite nochmal wechselte.Es geht also. Und dass diese Wagen extrem ausweichen können,haben sie oft genug bewiesen. Der Rauch war bei weitem nicht dicht genug,als dass Biela das Auto nicht hätte sehen können. Der Unterschied war,dass die anderen garnicht die Zeit hatten,zu bremsen.Sie mussten sofort ausweichen.Was mit einem Rennwagen auch geht,...wie sie bewiesen haben. Biela versuchte ein Vollbremsung.Aber die hatten damals noch kein ABS.Er rutscht mit blockierten Reifen.Das Auto versetzt sogar. Der Fahrer hinter Biela bremste wohl früher.Denn an der Unfallstelle war er langsamer als Biela.Aber auch bei ihm hätte es nicht mehr gereicht. Also ging er von der Bremse und fuhr zwischendurch. Biela hätte von der Bremse gehen müssen.Dann wäre ein Ausweichen möglich gewesen. Ein "Normalfahrer" kriegt das wohl nicht so einfach hin.Ein Rennfahrer schon. Aber auch ein Rennfahrer ist halt nur ein Mensch...
@quack18 O'Dors car was moving, and in fact the Audi driver seems to move to right of the track in the first part maybe thinking O'Dors would continue to go to the left. O'Dors just stopped instead, and the Audi driver just put his foot on the brake as a natural instinct, I think... "I'm sure afterwards he wished he had hit the wall himself instead", as "mrchrisdavies" already wrote.
Bei 0:22-0:24 sieht man wie die direkt dahinter liegenden Fahrzeuge binnen Sekundenbruchteilen reagieren konnten aber Frank Biela fährt mal glatt 70m geradeaus.
Odors auto bewegt sich wieder auf die Strecke und biela steigt genau da auf die Bremse. Mit blockierenden rädern ist da nix mehr mit ausweichen. Noch nie ein Rennen gefahren gell
I like the word that they say in this that sounds like " SCHLAGEN" . Ive been stoned and repetitively saying it to my cat whenever he comes by im like "SCHLAWGEN!" I think hes gonna scratch me tonight
I feel bad for frank i really do i met him in 2010 great guy he was hanging out with H.J. Stuck. People say WhY dId He nOt ChEcK oN oDoR. Well i have wetness and have caused a fatal accident before that is something that i will have to live with for the rest of my life and i still get insulted by the family of the racer, when you get in a accident like that first things first that you check my arms, legs, head and to see if i need someone to help me out of the car in franks case he didn't need anyone. At a track like AVUS even in it's final configuration to slow cars down it is a hella fast track going (in a audi a4 the car biela was driving) you pray to god your car doesn't break apart it's suspension in the chicane going 95-85 mph (which in O'dor's case it did) after that focus up big speed sections are next at this point frank is probably sailing in that fwd audi upwards of 150-160 mph (yes that fast in a touring car) which it was already cloudy outside so you see some smoke okay fine maybe, someone is sliding or they made contact and then you see a car and biela has driven with the likes of walter rohl and HJ stuck so he has tuns of skill. But then a car emerged from the smoke at that moment he has to be saying OH SHIT NO NO NOOOOO. What do you do sacrifice yourself and your car into the gard rails or slam on the break's, unfortunately frank chose the latter and as you can see he thought his car was just gonna keep rolling right but it stopped and POW. He hits him, imagine being you there your probably shaken up and i DEFINITELY don't want to cross the track at AVUS are you kidding me nah not for me. So you sit there your brian is frazzled and cooking like a egg on the stove so you just walk away there is nothing else you can do. So basically any way you frame it you can't do nothing to stop the accident except not running a modified BTCC car which had right hand drive not left. R.I.P O'dor and long live the legend frank biela
Great analysis. Biela was planning to avoid Kieth by going on the right but he got surprised by the fact that the Primera suddently stopped. There was almost no way to avoid that outcome.
@@Spyker8921 Thanks man, i feel for both of them especially Keith and his family. Frank is not at fault, i want people to understand that. He was a passenger not a murder or a ruthless killer for no reason.
Interesting how most people seem to completely disregard the initial impact with the wall and immediately blame it on the second impact even though the first impact was quite nasty in itself and a weird angle to boot.
To me, the point of such videos is not to blame individuals but to see if there's a failure in the design of the cars or circuit. Individuals differ between races, but design failures remain until fixed. In this case, the circuit is dangerous - I'm no fan of concrete barriers and, in this case, they certainly made a bad situation a lot worse. From other comments, I get the impression the circuit is closed. That's a start, but if any modern circuits are using concrete walls - especially this close in - then I'd be concerned. Concrete isn't known for being forgiving. Other comments also note that there's a move towards placing the driver nearer the middle. Again, that's great and if that's adopted will cut the number of serious injuries and deaths. I don't know if European racing uses the same or similar head restraints used in modern American racing, but as some comments have mentioned a broken neck, then that might help. If it's already done, great. I'm unsure about the comments regarding the marshals. The view isn't clear enough to see if there was anything they could have done better. I'm not willing to voice an opinion there, although I do hope that there was a proper review of procedures to see if there were any lessons that could be learned. On the whole, this looked like an unfortunate racing accident on a dangerous circuit, and most of the improvements that could be made now seem to have been.
That's basically what happened. Do you think he on purpose drove into that car. Why did he brake then ? Is he a crap driver ? I see many others that are, but not him. Face it, it's an accident. If you don't accept this to happen, get out of racing.
How many times did the field filter through that?? It should've been an immediate red flag. Double waved yellows ffs. Some of them barely slowed at all.
am schlimmsten finde ich ja, das das rennen viel wichtiger scheint als das leben der fahrer. zum einen die unfallursache: es wird gas gegeb nso lange es geht. und dann die folgen: die rettungskräfte müssen auchnoch aufpassen auf andere autos, die weiter vorbei fahren. meiner meinung nach müssten rennen SOFORT abgebrochen werden, wenn ein mehr oder minder schlimmer unfall passiert. und dann das selbe wie auf jeder autobahn: an den straßenrand fahren, stehen bleiben und den weg frei machen!
I think he didn't swerve because of that piece on the road. It's really difficult to make avoiding action when the other car is moving, you can't be sure if he'll keep moving or will stop. Considering what I said, he didn't have a couple of seconds to decide.
ive not seen the live coverage of this, just the vids with music in background. keith was a great driver especially in the btcc and he was just the unluckiest driver on the grid. one btcc race i think he only won. i still think that beila could have gone to see if he was alright after he crossed the track
He wasn’t sure which way the car was going to go and had eyeballed the incident early as the Audi moves slightly to his right as for a split second it looked like Keith was heading towards the barrier but stopped dead in the middle of the track, by that time it’s all over and to late to avoid contact.
He has 3+ seconds to swerve, 2 cars did with less time and room, one car had very little time or room but was able to swerved aggressively at the last moment, he locked up much like a amateur, no steering then, could have released the brakes and swerved like that car did at the last second, for a racing driver that's a bit strange, for they are always on the ball, unless he was distracted somehow!
like .... what ? this fatal crash is like death of Henry Surtees in Brands Hatch. It simply happend. His Nissan was RHD and not LHD like all others. If Surtees would be half meter back or more to the left or right he would be prepareing for Donington Park. Motorsport is deadly. Period. If you want to prevent dead ... dont drive it.
Terrible track official control. A man was slowly dying in that car, where every second counts, and it took over 2 minutes from getting drilled in the door before it was even safe for paramedics to attend to him. These days in most modern motorsport leagues, the cars would have been halted within about 20 seconds for an accident that serious. Even if it wouldn't have saved Kieth, imagine if it had been a car fire or an airway injury. The same 2 minutes would have passed. Inexcusable.
The pilot Who get out of the car, couldnt care less, abaut his professional colegue. Just took off, not even look inside the car he smashed, killing the other pilot in the process. What a Disgrace of a man.
@@jpmtlhead39 And again someone without a first aid training. First thing you learn? Yes get yourself out of danger. At that point marshalls where already there.
@@eviljan8158 in any other sport,when a colegue is down is teamates,or even adversaries when See that is serious always go and try to Help. That's called professionalism.
@@jpmtlhead39 Yeah cause its mostly safe for you. When there are cars on a race track and you get out of youre wrecked car thats still on this track you get youre fcking ass of that track.
I remember this accident, I'm a big motorsport fan. That's where I hated Biela. I still don't understand why he didn't turn left. Several drivers who were much closer to the Nissan managed to avoid the accident by turning left, or right. Biela's reaction was totally amateurish and unbelievable. He was very slow to react and he made the worst possible decision, even though he was a very experienced driver. It was a last dirty gesture from Biela, when he fell out of his car, he didn't even look at the Nissan, what could be with the other driver, he was just saving his own life. 🤮
The very first thing you learn when doing anything regarding first aid is? Rigth, first you look that you dont bring yourself in danger. So nothing wrong there. He could have done nothing there and marshalls were on the way.
Man that was a hard hit and that is driver's door correct ? In America we are on the left door drive ,he would at least have a chance to survive .sorry for the family of the driver
Ich habe das damals Live gesehen-u in meiner subjektiven Erinnerung in einer anderen Perspektive-Mein Gefühl damals war Biela hätte ausweichen können-hat sich aber falsch entschieden-Wenn ich das jetzt sehe null Vorwurf-keine Chance in der kurzen Zeit.
It's STW, the German version of Supertourers. Supertouring was very popular in the 90s with championships all over the world and many manufacturers were taking part in it
Drivers are trained to aim for a car if it is side ways, because the car will most likely move to the left or right to let others through. O’dor stopped in the middle of the track, which left Biela nowhere to go. And, when under braking, steering is quite limited. He probably physically could not turn the car.
@MrEurocup No, sadly there was no chance to survive this crash. Even today with an aktuell Car is there only a very little chance in such an crash. Sorry for that.
With respect I can’t believe the Audi didn’t veer left or right, instead of locking up. Locked up it’s a straight line and it looked like he had time, easy line down the left hand side. I’ve raced bikes on the track and the more I watch the video the more of an amateur the Audi driver looks. His lack of action and poor judgment screams at you.
Ugly accident. I noticed that the driver who hit Kieth O'dor jumps the guardrail quickly and doesn't even look at Kieth O'dor's car.... as if he knew that Kieth was in serious trouble and didn't want to see the carnage....
Bob Coleman because in almost every country in europe the cars are left hand drive, and the cars of this championship are simply road cars prepared for racing.
what a nasty piece of heartless work the silver audi driver must have been Frank Biela? he did not even go straight over to see how Odor was or if he could help !! just crossed the track and hopped over the barrier. Any normal human would surely go and try and help or see how the other driver was, especially after ramming into him flat out!!
rollcage is in amatur and prof sport from the early 70's kid .... your question is simply stiupid. Yes, he had rollcage, like everybody else. You will ask "why then he was dead" ? Becouse every rollcage is weekes on the side. Why you think Michael "Beef" Park died ?
You can clearly see him trying to slow down at: 0:25
Locked his brakes
Yeah and that’s a heavy impact and that led to Keith’s death moments later
For anyone asking why he's locking at the worst place possible. First, he didn't notice keith's car because of the cars that have passed keith before, then he didn't expect keith's car to roll back to the middle of the track. You might be asking "then why he's not turning instead of braking". First of all, this is not GT or modern DTM type of car that has a lot of downforce and huge brake to make a very sudden moves. In theory, he would've understeer or overreacted that could nit hurt himself, but maybe keith too.
he locked up there were no abs on the super tourers
@@alieffauzanrizky7202 that’s exactly it. Bad situation… very sad.
Because of his British racing background, and unlike most other competitors in the German series, Kieth was racing a right hand drive touring car, he could've lived if he was sitting in the left side...
You're very likely correct, just like in NASCAR only backwards drivers side door facing oncoming traffic always makes me hold my breath, this is a classic example why and the reason most series are mandating that the driver is moved closer to the center line of the roll cage. Safety has always been a moving target.
The car hit the wall left side pretty hard too
Oh my! I didn't know that, and makes the accident, so much worse. It confused me seeing left hand drivers in some of the clip. I assumed they were all left side steering. Makes sense now.
Or the Audi turn his steering wheel, I was on the top bend when still happened.
It's more to do with weight distribution. For example in BTCC, many British drivers are on the left as most circuits are clockwise
He had 9 lives. He was very lucky to survive that crash at donnington in the BTC years ago. Sadly gone but not forgotten x
I can't imagine how that first marshal to look into the car must have felt 😢
So tragic.
The big factor IMO was the circuit itself, the Avus track was unbelievably dangerous and in no fit state at the time to host races, you simply cannot race at breakneck speeds on a narrow bit of Tarmac between two concrete walls because as demonstrated, any car that hits it has no other way to go than right back into the middle of the pack with the potential of utter chaos, no run-off areas whatsoever. You could say the same about Monaco but at least there they have sufficient run off areas at every fast corner and potential overtake spots
Plus I'm siding with the argument that Biela was unsighted and saw O'Dor way too late to react sufficiently, if it were you in the car, what would your very first natural instincts make you do? Of course, Slam the brakes on hard, you don't make sudden turns at full speed otherwise you have a potentially bad (if not worse) accident
I agree. Isn't it the same part of the track where John winter had his wreck in 1994? In that case the barrier has been moved closer to the track. (not that it mattered in this case)
Sounds like the Nurburgring.
Monaco has runoff at the fast corners? The fastest corner at Monaco is Tabac. There's no run-off there. Overall, however, Monaco is a much slower circuit than Avus. Avus was rather hair-raising.
Still, it was an unlucky set of circumstances that led to this fatal accident. Cars do sometimes come to rest in the middle of the track and get broadsided no matter how safe the track layout. They had a fatality in GT racing at Paul Ricard a few years ago;. That accident was caused by a crashed car being hit by a following car, despite Paul Ricard being a massive car park.
Incidentally, it strikes me as disgraceful that there wasn't a medical car on scene within 30s or so given that the accident happened just a short distance past the pit exit (not that it would have made any difference, sadly).
He’d survive that in a modern touring car, looks to me like he had almost zero site impact protection.
I know this is an old comment, but isle of Man TT has been going on for over hundred years. On average about 3 people die a year.
I think the marshals had huge balls to jump the fence when the rest of the cars were still flying through there...
That is amongst the most alarming action on this clip. That is, many of the drivers just proceeded through the wreckage at speed despite the pedestrians on the track. Poor regard for Life.
I met Keith at the 1983 and 1984 London Motorsports Show where I was also exhibiting - right opposite the JanSpeed stand. I liked him tremedously.
Some people depict Biela as a gruesome murderer, which is just outright wrong. Biela may not have seen O'dor in time, given that there is a corner before the scene. The AVUS was a pretty fast track anyway, though had there been yellow flags in time, Biela may have had more time to break. It's not like Frank felt no remorse for the accident. For years he said in interviews that he felt horrible about the whole thing and that it'll haunt him for the rest of his life.
And at speeds from 120 to 140+. He probably thought he was gonna roll forward a little too but misjudged at a very high speed sometimes things happen to quick for you to react in time. Horrible accident.
Why Biela doesn´t turn left a little before bracking???
@@UnimatrixOne Even if he did so since he locked his brakes it wouldnt even have done anything since the tires are sliding.
@@koltinn BEFORE bracking
@@UnimatrixOne Dont think he had time, fast track. He immediately locked up.
RIP Keith o dor you will be much missed by millions of racing fans who are always there to support you
Ich habe das Rennen damals live im Fernsehen gemeinsam mit meinen Großeltern angeschaut. Die Hoffnungen von Thomas Voigt haben sich leider nicht bestätigt. Kieth O'dor erlag zwei Tage später seinen schweren Verletzungen.
"Wo ist der Artzt?" Genau! For whatever you can say about the actual incident, the lack of emergency response is diabolical. Kieth wasn't dead at this point. A quicker response from the doctors and ambulances could have saved him.
No because O'dor was already brain dead before he was hit by Biela. ^
Where did you get that info? Why was he brain dead?
At the moment when the commentator asks where the doctor is a doctor was already tending to him but he couldn't be seen because he entered the car through the left side door, which you can't see in the angle. The right side of the car was completely destroyed by the impact.
That's not true, the car was so badly damaged that the marshals had to spend around a half hour to get him out. If a doctor was there they couldn't have done anything.
@@spitymaeh your comment is brain dead!
Ich war damals elf Jahre alt und schon von Motorsport begeistert,das war der erste fatale Unfall den ich live miterlebt habe. Ich weis noch wie geschockt ich war, traurig und unruhig,aber ich wusste dass es dazu gehört.
I wish i can turn back to this moment and save him
Should have been an instant red flag...
The problem is that O'dors Car starts mpving backwards but then turns to end up vertical to the track, Biela had about 1.1 sec to react at the speed ha had (at least 130 kph at full throttle through the right hander) and as he steps on the breaks he does it at instinct. Not much chance to stop... -_-
R.I.P O'dor
No, the main reason was he was driving a right-hand drive car.
@@Gigidag77 In any other crash had he been in a LEFT hand drive car, it'd be similar.. ridiculous logic.
His tires were smoking from, slamming the brakes 0:25 and definitely was slowing down. The blue car was spinning, awkwardly on the 1 & a half lane track. Absolutely no room, or time to slow. The suspension failed on the blue car. RIP to the fallen.
The blue car was moving pretty unpredictably but I don't think anybody expected it to totally STOP due to collapsed suspension.. RIP.
Which corner of the car had the suspension failure?
I had the chance to meet all three Nissan drivers Keith Odor, Ivan Capelli and Sascha Massen just weeks before at Hockenheim and let them sign my Nissan Cap, that I still keep in memory. This crash was really tragic and I couldn't believe it.
OMG, I'm still horrified by the memory of watching this race live on TV...very sad. While I do not personally know any of these admirable drivers, I will never forget them or what happened.
0:05 look at those fans! They could literally touch the car if they were mad enough. That's mental even for mid 90s safety standards.
Terrible job by marshals, no inmediate medical attention and no instant yellow-red flag, Frank cannot evade O'dor's car at that speed. R.I.P. O'dor
You dont have the slightest bit of expertise on being a marshal, right? First of all you cant see the marshalpost in the shot. Thats where marshals HAVE TO stay. So your assumption they didnt wave a flag is BS. Second: Why should the wave the surface flag? Doesnt make any sense at all. Yellows/Doubleyellows are more restrictive than surfaceflags. Additionally, if you look at the direction they are approaching from, it is clear their post is close to the crashsite. No yellow flag waved their would have changed a damn thing. Racedrivers look at where they are going and
It's impossible to blame Biela here, the cars were at an incredibly high speed, and Biela was unsighted due to the cars in front of him. As soon as the cars in front of Biela moved around O'dor, O'dor's car veered across the track. Biela had next to no time to react, and his natural instinct, as anyone's would be was to step on the brakes as fast as possible. His brain had no time to tell him to move around O'dor's car.
the driver behind him reacted properly. i don`t know what he was thinking about while racing
The Audi had 3 seconds at least . He panicked and locked up like an amateur
@@siniydenYep, very bad job, 2 cars were able to avoid him, one with little room and time, as you said amateurish, that's what new drivers do all of the time, panic braking!
ブレーキロックで直進クラッシュ プロフェッショナルですか？
I remember this incident. You know, often there's these crashes, and these result in the commentator stating who was very lucky to get away with it, sometimes minor injuries, or even without any at all. And then, the odds strike just when you don't expect. The car that hit the wall was just left at the wrong spot, too many cars had to pass by, not all lucky enough to avoid that car.
When you see a car spinning in front of you, you aim for it. I bet Biela kept it in straight line since he expected O'Dor to slide all the way across to the left. But O'Dor was slowing down to a stop already and Biela couldn't see when the accident actually started and how much speed O'Dor was still carrying during his slide.
Biela was full on his brakes for about 1.5s before the impact
When you're full on breaks you generally block your tires so you cant turn
@@stevenshakespear8855 especially back then, probably no ABS
@@keveb4724Racers like rallying drivers don't use ABS, thay want full control of all aspects of the braking system, not some computer deciding that, ABS is for the less skilled, and for the majority who are poorly skilled.
He would have understeered directly into O'Dor if he tried to turn. That's why he chose to lock up. No way to avoid this crash.
Fucking hell, this comment section is cancer... Everyone says " he should've done this he should've done that" "i would've done this or that" easy to say behind your keyboards. I wonder how you would react in that split second moment if you were really in that situation see how you would react then. I'm pretty sure you would lock up your brakes and have no time to think about maybe lifting your foot of the brake pedal .. *Also, if you look closely, he was sliding when he locked up, so even if he released his brakes there would be no way he could evade him*
yep, put them in front of a supertourer in that situation and see what they do.
This wasn't just "bad luck." The AVUS track was horribly dangerous, walls on both sides right on the edge of the track the whole way round. There was nowhere for crashed cars to go but right back into the middle of the track. Thankfully now closed after this accident and a number of others in the mid-90s.
Es ist eine Stadtstrecke. Ganz normal. Die Autos waren nicht sicher genug und das er Rechtslenker gefahren ist. Das hätte auch auf anderen Strecken passieren können.
To me it looks like he wasn't looking at the road in front of him at that moment, it looks like he reacted very late, hence the hard braking reaction when he spotted one car stopped in the middle of the road.
He was probably looking at the mirrors, or the dashboard switching something in the cockpit because in a straight line is the only time a racing driver can do work on other things a part from just focusing on driving through the next corner.
I'm not even an amateur armchair QB when it comes to motorsports, but it looks to me like he had ample passing room on the left, if he'd noticed sooner. There was a large, flat piece of debris to the left, but better that than this horrible crash. And yeah, if he could have veered just a bit, he might have spun, but he would have avoided that deadly T-bone to the door.
YonnyMestampo well yes, but Keith was going straight backwards, not turning but then he slide to the right, in front of the other drive, hence the hard braking and not swerving. He had no clue what was going to have happened
It's neithers fault... That was just a plain racing incident. I don't have to say why because you can think and if you were him, you might have done the same. It is unfortunate but what really made me sad is he's very passionate about racing and he died in the place that he love, and doing the thing that he love.
You have to remember in motorsports, we take all the risk regardless of safety eventhough it has been improved.
R.I.P. Keith
the fact that he died doing what he loved is nothing to be sad about.
It was very negligent of the other drivers to continue through the accident scene at those speeds.
very sad...i went to school with him in Salisbury,UK in the early 1970s
This shows the heartbreak of motor racing
I agree to how you see things in this case. I know Frank Biela because he drove for us this season. He has a really good personality and in my opinion he wasto a wrong time at a wrong place. He just break down the car. Imagine yourself in that situation you wouldn't behave in a different way. You just see a car which is rolling into your way at a speed of maybe 200. It's a reflex to put the hell out of the breaks...in this case it was not avoidable... RIP Kieth O'dor.
3 cars that were right behind O'dor could avoid him without crashing into him, while Biela who had O'dor in plain sight for at least 3 seconds before crashing into him could not? Seems like a very rookie mistake of not looking and then panic braking at the very last moment.
Avoidable accident, as was proven by the other 3 cars.
I believe I'd have stayed in my car until those last couple went by.
It happend at the 1995 AVUS Circuit (we know about that track) we will miss Kieth O'Dor and also the other racing drivers that passed away who did their favorite thing...
(if people say crashing they're idiots but I won't call them idiots I'll say racing to correct them)
I remember the day well!! One of the best in the business!! Gone but never forgotten!!
It was a front suspension failure caused by those stupid temporary high chicanes at the front of the video.
RIP
RIP Kieth O'Dor
0:25 Not even a single small input in the steering wheel to go past him, what the fuck was that other driver thinking
That was a huge crash! R.I.P.
RIP Keith O Dor
He had to lift his foot off the brake to get his steering back it goes agianst yr instincts. It's hard to judge this situation tho. Once I was sliding strait for a parked car in the wet and did lift off and missed the car.
Frank did everything he could do to prevent this crash. But the crash happend. But Frank is a fair Sportsman. R.I.P Keith...
That is everything he could??. Jeeze!
look at the inboard recording. 0:08 the blue car in front is the one from Kieth O'dor...and look closely he just drives straight like Senna did back then... either something is broken in the frame or steering or tire damage he already had a medical problem there.
The suspension broke
R.I.P Kieth O´dor
R.I.P. ich sah den Unfall bei der Übertragung...bin heute immer noch geschockt....echt böse...Aber Frank Biela..konnte nichts dafür. So schnell kann ein Rennwagen nicht ausweichen...nicht bei diesen Geschwindigkeiten. Ein Drama...
ein Audi davor zeigte,dass es möglich ist.Er will zuerst rechts vorbei.Sieht, dass das Auto dorthin rollt und lenkt links vorbei.
Rennfahrer haben oft bewiesen,dass sie extrem ausweichen können.Machbar ist es also...nur kann man nicht erwarten,dass sie immer schnell genug reagieren.
Das is n Unterschied. Audi 1 war unmittelbar davor. Frank biela musste durch die quamwolke der Reifen. Bist du schon mal durch Rauch gefahren? Nich labern, denken.
@@holgersturm9368 die davor hatten extrem wenig Zeit zu reagieren.Einer reagierte so schnell,dass er sogar die Seite nochmal wechselte.Es geht also.
Und dass diese Wagen extrem ausweichen können,haben sie oft genug bewiesen.
Der Rauch war bei weitem nicht dicht genug,als dass Biela das Auto nicht hätte sehen können.
Der Unterschied war,dass die anderen garnicht die Zeit hatten,zu bremsen.Sie mussten sofort ausweichen.Was mit einem Rennwagen auch geht,...wie sie bewiesen haben.
Biela versuchte ein Vollbremsung.Aber die hatten damals noch kein ABS.Er rutscht mit blockierten Reifen.Das Auto versetzt sogar.
Der Fahrer hinter Biela bremste wohl früher.Denn an der Unfallstelle war er langsamer als Biela.Aber auch bei ihm hätte es nicht mehr gereicht.
Also ging er von der Bremse und fuhr zwischendurch.
Biela hätte von der Bremse gehen müssen.Dann wäre ein Ausweichen möglich gewesen.
Ein "Normalfahrer" kriegt das wohl nicht so einfach hin.Ein Rennfahrer schon.
Aber auch ein Rennfahrer ist halt nur ein Mensch...
@quack18
O'Dors car was moving, and in fact the Audi driver seems to move to right of the track in the first part maybe thinking O'Dors would continue to go to the left. O'Dors just stopped instead, and the Audi driver just put his foot on the brake as a natural instinct, I think...
"I'm sure afterwards he wished he had hit the wall himself instead", as "mrchrisdavies" already wrote.
Bei 0:22-0:24 sieht man wie die direkt dahinter liegenden Fahrzeuge binnen Sekundenbruchteilen reagieren konnten aber Frank Biela fährt mal glatt 70m geradeaus.
genau
Odors auto bewegt sich wieder auf die Strecke und biela steigt genau da auf die Bremse. Mit blockierenden rädern ist da nix mehr mit ausweichen. Noch nie ein Rennen gefahren gell
I like the word that they say in this that sounds like " SCHLAGEN" . Ive been stoned and repetitively saying it to my cat whenever he comes by im like
"SCHLAWGEN!"
I think hes gonna scratch me tonight
Nice to see the other driver stop to help. Not exactly David Purley was he ?
To be fair, if you're not a trauma trained paramedic, you're just going to get in the way...
usual bullshit remark
@@nastyevilninja The comment was made nine years ago. YT algorithm strikes again.
The driver didn't even try to avoid the crash..he had plenty of time to turn and avoid a head on crash..
I feel bad for frank i really do i met him in 2010 great guy he was hanging out with H.J. Stuck. People say WhY dId He nOt ChEcK oN oDoR. Well i have wetness and have caused a fatal accident before that is something that i will have to live with for the rest of my life and i still get insulted by the family of the racer, when you get in a accident like that first things first that you check my arms, legs, head and to see if i need someone to help me out of the car in franks case he didn't need anyone. At a track like AVUS even in it's final configuration to slow cars down it is a hella fast track going (in a audi a4 the car biela was driving) you pray to god your car doesn't break apart it's suspension in the chicane going 95-85 mph (which in O'dor's case it did) after that focus up big speed sections are next at this point frank is probably sailing in that fwd audi upwards of 150-160 mph (yes that fast in a touring car) which it was already cloudy outside so you see some smoke okay fine maybe, someone is sliding or they made contact and then you see a car and biela has driven with the likes of walter rohl and HJ stuck so he has tuns of skill. But then a car emerged from the smoke at that moment he has to be saying OH SHIT NO NO NOOOOO. What do you do sacrifice yourself and your car into the gard rails or slam on the break's, unfortunately frank chose the latter and as you can see he thought his car was just gonna keep rolling right but it stopped and POW. He hits him, imagine being you there your probably shaken up and i DEFINITELY don't want to cross the track at AVUS are you kidding me nah not for me. So you sit there your brian is frazzled and cooking like a egg on the stove so you just walk away there is nothing else you can do. So basically any way you frame it you can't do nothing to stop the accident except not running a modified BTCC car which had right hand drive not left. R.I.P O'dor and long live the legend frank biela
Great analysis. Biela was planning to avoid Kieth by going on the right but he got surprised by the fact that the Primera suddently stopped. There was almost no way to avoid that outcome.
@@Spyker8921 Thanks man, i feel for both of them especially Keith and his family. Frank is not at fault, i want people to understand that. He was a passenger not a murder or a ruthless killer for no reason.
Interesting how most people seem to completely disregard the initial impact with the wall and immediately blame it on the second impact even though the first impact was quite nasty in itself and a weird angle to boot.
The cars clearly are almost weightless in several different parts of that circuit. Absolute disaster of a re-design.
@LykosLykos
By the way, the driver is Biela, isn't it?
He just crashed, he´s probably pretty shaken himself and maybe wont be of much help anyway.
To me, the point of such videos is not to blame individuals but to see if there's a failure in the design of the cars or circuit. Individuals differ between races, but design failures remain until fixed.
In this case, the circuit is dangerous - I'm no fan of concrete barriers and, in this case, they certainly made a bad situation a lot worse.
From other comments, I get the impression the circuit is closed. That's a start, but if any modern circuits are using concrete walls - especially this close in - then I'd be concerned. Concrete isn't known for being forgiving.
Other comments also note that there's a move towards placing the driver nearer the middle. Again, that's great and if that's adopted will cut the number of serious injuries and deaths.
I don't know if European racing uses the same or similar head restraints used in modern American racing, but as some comments have mentioned a broken neck, then that might help. If it's already done, great.
I'm unsure about the comments regarding the marshals. The view isn't clear enough to see if there was anything they could have done better. I'm not willing to voice an opinion there, although I do hope that there was a proper review of procedures to see if there were any lessons that could be learned.
On the whole, this looked like an unfortunate racing accident on a dangerous circuit, and most of the improvements that could be made now seem to have been.
Half an hour before getting him out of the car is unnaceptable.
When you lock your Brakes your sliding on microscopic heated rubber ball bearings from the tires contact patch, it is like sliding on ice !
He panicked, he could have easily steered round him.
That's basically what happened. Do you think he on purpose drove into that car. Why did he brake then ? Is he a crap driver ? I see many others that are, but not him. Face it, it's an accident. If you don't accept this to happen, get out of racing.
you know that he had only 2 sec to react? he just full breaked... when you see it sure you can say how to make it better but not in this situation
How many times did the field filter through that?? It should've been an immediate red flag. Double waved yellows ffs. Some of them barely slowed at all.
Shit that happens when you play with your life
The accident didn’t seem so big
am schlimmsten finde ich ja, das das rennen viel wichtiger scheint als das leben der fahrer. zum einen die unfallursache: es wird gas gegeb nso lange es geht.
und dann die folgen: die rettungskräfte müssen auchnoch aufpassen auf andere autos, die weiter vorbei fahren.
meiner meinung nach müssten rennen SOFORT abgebrochen werden, wenn ein mehr oder minder schlimmer unfall passiert. und dann das selbe wie auf jeder autobahn: an den straßenrand fahren, stehen bleiben und den weg frei machen!
I think he didn't swerve because of that piece on the road.
It's really difficult to make avoiding action when the other car is moving, you can't be sure if he'll keep moving or will stop. Considering what I said, he didn't have a couple of seconds to decide.
ive not seen the live coverage of this, just the vids with music in background. keith was a great driver especially in the btcc and he was just the unluckiest driver on the grid. one btcc race i think he only won. i still think that beila could have gone to see if he was alright after he crossed the track
I think he knew what had happened, he would have seen it in slow-mo. :(
Love how they walked up and looked like yep he's dead...
Love?
He wasn’t sure which way the car was going to go and had eyeballed the incident early as the Audi moves slightly to his right as for a split second it looked like Keith was heading towards the barrier but stopped dead in the middle of the track, by that time it’s all over and to late to avoid contact.
He has 3+ seconds to swerve, 2 cars did with less time and room, one car had very little time or room but was able to swerved aggressively at the last moment, he locked up much like a amateur, no steering then, could have released the brakes and swerved like that car did at the last second, for a racing driver that's a bit strange, for they are always on the ball, unless he was distracted somehow!
Can’t believe they didn’t red flag it straight aaay
like .... what ?
this fatal crash is like death of Henry Surtees in Brands Hatch. It simply happend. His Nissan was RHD and not LHD like all others. If Surtees would be half meter back or more to the left or right he would be prepareing for Donington Park.
Motorsport is deadly. Period.
If you want to prevent dead ... dont drive it.
yeh the reason beila couldnt stop was he locked his brakes and lost all steering.
0:24 he locked the brakes when he should have steered left into the wall.
Terrible track official control. A man was slowly dying in that car, where every second counts, and it took over 2 minutes from getting drilled in the door before it was even safe for paramedics to attend to him. These days in most modern motorsport leagues, the cars would have been halted within about 20 seconds for an accident that serious. Even if it wouldn't have saved Kieth, imagine if it had been a car fire or an airway injury. The same 2 minutes would have passed. Inexcusable.
Motor racing is very dangerous. Sorry for your trouble Keith. RIP.
Dude he was in a right hand drive.
The pilot Who get out of the car, couldnt care less, abaut his professional colegue. Just took off, not even look inside the car he smashed, killing the other pilot in the process.
What a Disgrace of a man.
DONT BLAME ANYONE FOR KILLING SOMEONE ON FREAKING PURPOSE
@@DuddleBug5 man,speak but not so loud
@@jpmtlhead39 And again someone without a first aid training. First thing you learn? Yes get yourself out of danger. At that point marshalls where already there.
@@eviljan8158 in any other sport,when a colegue is down is teamates,or even adversaries when See that is serious always go and try to Help.
That's called professionalism.
@@jpmtlhead39 Yeah cause its mostly safe for you. When there are cars on a race track and you get out of youre wrecked car thats still on this track you get youre fcking ass of that track.
Se rompió la dirección por lo menos desde la cámara a bordo se aprecia que corrige en la curva pero ya estába sin dirección ..la rueda izquierda.
Wow the dude that hit him had a ton of space to make a better decision.
not really
Yes really! Rubbish reactions from the Audi!
Ist der Nissan ein Rechtslenker?
Ja, war ein Rechtslenker
I remember this accident, I'm a big motorsport fan. That's where I hated Biela. I still don't understand why he didn't turn left. Several drivers who were much closer to the Nissan managed to avoid the accident by turning left, or right. Biela's reaction was totally amateurish and unbelievable. He was very slow to react and he made the worst possible decision, even though he was a very experienced driver. It was a last dirty gesture from Biela, when he fell out of his car, he didn't even look at the Nissan, what could be with the other driver, he was just saving his own life. 🤮
TRY SLOWING A CAR DOWN AT +60 MPH
The very first thing you learn when doing anything regarding first aid is? Rigth, first you look that you dont bring yourself in danger. So nothing wrong there. He could have done nothing there and marshalls were on the way.
0:37 I Can See his Head
Man that was a hard hit and that is driver's door correct ? In America we are on the left door drive ,he would at least have a chance to survive .sorry for the family of the driver
Ich habe das damals Live gesehen-u in meiner subjektiven Erinnerung in einer anderen Perspektive-Mein Gefühl damals war Biela hätte ausweichen können-hat sich aber falsch entschieden-Wenn ich das jetzt sehe null Vorwurf-keine Chance in der kurzen Zeit.
One of the worse T-bones I've ever seen on the racetrack...I wonder if the rollcages were different back then
One question what type of racing is this? Man that blue car took q had lick from other car.
I believe in is DTM but I'm not 100%
@@mattepps8688 No thats the STW= Super Tourenwagen Cup
It's STW, the German version of Supertourers. Supertouring was very popular in the 90s with championships all over the world and many manufacturers were taking part in it
He could've either braked earlier or steered like the others before him did..
Drivers are trained to aim for a car if it is side ways, because the car will most likely move to the left or right to let others through. O’dor stopped in the middle of the track, which left Biela nowhere to go. And, when under braking, steering is quite limited. He probably physically could not turn the car.
STW-Swedish Touring Car Championship?
STW stands for Super Tourenwagen and it was a German series.
@MrEurocup
No, sadly there was no chance to survive this crash.
Even today with an aktuell Car is there only a very little chance in such an crash.
Sorry for that.
With respect I can’t believe the Audi didn’t veer left or right, instead of locking up. Locked up it’s a straight line and it looked like he had time, easy line down the left hand side. I’ve raced bikes on the track and the more I watch the video the more of an amateur the Audi driver looks. His lack of action and poor judgment screams at you.
Dangerous chicane and no red flags, what's not to like.
Ugly accident. I noticed that the driver who hit Kieth O'dor jumps the guardrail quickly and doesn't even look at Kieth O'dor's car.... as if he knew that Kieth was in serious trouble and didn't want to see the carnage....
The driver who hit O'Dor was useless...he just stood on the brakes instead of steering round him.
why did his car have to be left hand drive?!
Bob Coleman because in almost every country in europe the cars are left hand drive, and the cars of this championship are simply road cars prepared for racing.
You mean RHD
Skidding wheels don't turn. all he had to do is let off the brake and he could have avoided hitting him.
Mh... i think the others cars were safer!
A mistake by the following car.
what a nasty piece of heartless work the silver audi driver must have been Frank Biela? he did not even go straight over to see how Odor was or if he could help !! just crossed the track and hopped over the barrier. Any normal human would surely go and try and help or see how the other driver was, especially after ramming into him flat out!!
Oh little ashole....
Guy slams on the brakes... Other options available
rollcage is in amatur and prof sport from the early 70's kid .... your question is simply stiupid.
Yes, he had rollcage, like everybody else. You will ask "why then he was dead" ? Becouse every rollcage is weekes on the side. Why you think Michael "Beef" Park died ?
Really? Now why the fuck would that man hit him on purpose? How can any idiot say he murdered anyone. Thats crazy.
Frank Biela really did a terrible job evading him.
Schönes Video, quasi direkt um die Ecke 👌🏻
Schade dass die Avus nich mehr is 😭