World championship skier nearly wiped out by falling drone

[Lethal Seraph]

That's gotta sting like a m******* if it hit him.

[MegaDave91]

The drone was actually 6.5 kg and free falling from 19 meters. His speed on top of that would have been a serious injury, could easily dislocate a shoulder.

Agreed. This doesn't appear to be a consumer grade drone like the Phantom 3 series made by DJI. The Phantom 3 is shy of 3lbs and you definitely do not want one of those falling on your head either, let alone a 14.3lb drone.

[MTROB]

Concussions occur when the brain hits the side of the skull. This means force to any part of the body which transfers the energy to the head/neck, can cause a concussion. A severe concussion can be caused by minimal amount of force, especially if there is past head injury history. Slalom skiers recently have had to change helmet specifications because of repeated pounding of gates (the objects they ski around) on the helmets. The pounding gradually broke the material of the helmet down, and slalom skiers were ending up with concussions. Likely if Hirscher had been hit anywhere near the head he would have a concussion, which is a severe injury.

 

Its important to remember these skiers are racing on ice. The snow is injected with water before the race occurs to level the playing field (Make sure the conditions are the same for each skier). This means the snow is not soft and impact absorbent like normal, it hurts really badly when you fall, and increases the quantity of injuries. This ice causes skiers and their technicians to sharpen the skis edges, leading to an increases risk of a "caught edge". If the drone were to have distracted Hirscher for even a small instant, you could have caught an edge and torn an ACL, or another ligament.

 

This was the best discipline for this event to have occurred, the skiers have the slowest speed in slalom, as mentioned before 40km/h. If this were to have happened during a downhill event (Skiers reach speeds over 120km/h), the results would likely have been more catastrophic.

[cesrai]

Sounds like politicians logic to me.

Sensational.

 

It happened in Italy.

 

If we tighten the law in America, it won't happen in Italy again.

How does this relate ?????????

---

I can't blame The international ski federation on banning drones in their world cup as they can be a safety hazzard; it's nice no one got hurt.

If anyone wants to read a well written article not a clickbait article http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/24/sports/skiing/drones-banned-at-world-cup-races-after-one-nearly-hits-marcel-hirscher.html?_r=1

[jaggysnake57]

Remember when Felipe Massa hit a 0.8kg spring face first at 260km/h? He survived without major head injuries and at no point did he risk his life. So no, a skier going at 40km/h hitting a drone moving at about the same speed doesn't risk his life. This is just vague approximation of course, maybe I could come up with some physics to prove it iif I had all the correct data.

 

fuck me i loled. one of the stupidest comments ever. massa was out for months had to undergo surgery, and was initially in a critical condition and looked like this

 

 

oh and that wasnt head on, it struk the side of his helmet...but really the best way to show your talking out your arse is Michael Schumacher, skying slower than this guy, wearing a helmet falls over and hits a rock and he still is in a bad way 2 years later.....there is a very good chance this would have killed him if it hit him.

[Sauron]

fuck me i loled. one of the stupidest comments ever. massa was out for months had to undergo surgery, and was initially in a critical condition and looked like this

 

 

oh and that wasnt head on, it struk the side of his helmet...but really the best way to show your talking out your arse is Michael Schumacher, skying slower than this guy, wearing a helmet falls over and hits a rock and he still is in a bad way 2 years later.....there is a very good chance this would have killed him if it hit him.

 

Massa recovered 100% from a much worse impact than the skier would have endured - the fact that is a little on the side really means nothing since the angle was just a few degrees. If you knew anything about physics you'd know hitting a rock at 25 km/h is not the same as hitting a drone at that speed. Not to mention, Schumacher survived - whereas I was calling bs on the possibility of the drone killing him. If you read my other post I clearly explain why he was in no danger of suffering serious injuries from the drone itself (although the fall may have been worse).

[The_Stig]

Concussions occur when the brain hits the side of the skull. This means force to any part of the body which transfers the energy to the head/neck, can cause a concussion. A severe concussion can be caused by minimal amount of force, especially if there is past head injury history. Slalom skiers recently have had to change helmet specifications because of repeated pounding of gates (the objects they ski around) on the helmets. The pounding gradually broke the material of the helmet down, and slalom skiers were ending up with concussions. Likely if Hirscher had been hit anywhere near the head he would have a concussion, which is a severe injury.

 

Its important to remember these skiers are racing on ice. The snow is injected with water before the race occurs to level the playing field (Make sure the conditions are the same for each skier). This means the snow is not soft and impact absorbent like normal, it hurts really badly when you fall, and increases the quantity of injuries. This ice causes skiers and their technicians to sharpen the skis edges, leading to an increases risk of a "caught edge". If the drone were to have distracted Hirscher for even a small instant, you could have caught an edge and torn an ACL, or another ligament.

 

This was the best discipline for this event to have occurred, the skiers have the slowest speed in slalom, as mentioned before 40km/h. If this were to have happened during a downhill event (Skiers reach speeds over 120km/h), the results would likely have been more catastrophic.

1. Ski racers rarely hit the gate with their helmet,in slalom they are forced to wear chin guards, which catch 99% of the gates

2. Catching edges are extremely rare when even skiing with the sharpest skis, a crash would be at most what would happen. It doesn't take any concentration to keep your skis in line at this level, they have been skiing for years and are more worried about their line than anything else.

3. Snow isn't soft and absorbent whenever your ski racing, sure the ice is harder, but it makes little difference. (Snow is always hard when ski racing, it helps with carving)

4. I agree with the last bit, downhill is dangerous enough as is.

 

 

Also, I do think an  injury would've occurred, but its hard to know exactly what would've happened. 

[The_Stig]

 

 

oh and that wasnt head on, it struk the side of his helmet...but really the best way to show your talking out your arse is Michael Schumacher, skying slower than this guy, wearing a helmet falls over and hits a rock and he still is in a bad way 2 years later.....there is a very good chance this would have killed him if it hit him.

1. Micheal Schumacher is quite a bit older than Macel

2. Micheal Schumacher was not wearing a racing-grade FIS-approved helmet at the time of his crash

3. A rock is a bit harder than a drone

[CTR640]

Humans really have no lifes these days. First, the selfies and now drones this and drones that. Fuck, man, that's why the aliens won't talk to us.

[Belgarathian]

It would have caused serious injury and probably have taken him out of the competition. Very unlikely to have killed him, but there is always a possibility. 

 

Would have got 1m views on YouTube over night. 

[Xenift]

Wai am I seeing f1 things here.

[jaggysnake57]

Massa recovered 100% from a much worse impact than the skier would have endured - the fact that is a little on the side really means nothing since the angle was just a few degrees. If you knew anything about physics you'd know hitting a rock at 25 km/h is not the same as hitting a drone at that speed. Not to mention, Schumacher survived - whereas I was calling bs on the possibility of the drone killing him. If you read my other post I clearly explain why he was in no danger of suffering serious injuries from the drone itself (although the fall may have been worse).

 

and Schumacher hasnt recovered from a lesser impact, whats your point? of you knew anythng about biology then you would understand that its not just about the power of the impact but where the impact occurs. 

 

i like how you comment on my knowledge of physics then proceed to prove my point whilst thinking your defending your own. it combined impact of a falling drone and the high speed skiers head would have been much higher than that of Schumachers fall.

 

1. Micheal Schumacher is quite a bit older than Macel

2. Micheal Schumacher was not wearing a racing-grade FIS-approved helmet at the time of his crash

3. A rock is a bit harder than a drone

 

1 WTF has age got to do with it?

2 ill give you that one, but tell me how that helps when it smacks you in the face? also what about the fall afterwards

3 rock is harder than metal? is it sharper? there is hundreds of ways that the drone could do serious injury or even fatal, to just right it off and call it sensational is stupid.

 

1 more thing if snow isnt soft how do you make footprints in the snow?

[ivhyn]

Remember when Felipe Massa hit a 0.8kg spring face first at 260km/h? He survived without major head injuries and at no point did he risk his life. So no, a skier going at 40km/h hitting a drone moving at about the same speed doesn't risk his life. This is just vague approximation of course, maybe I could come up with some physics to prove it iif I had all the correct data.

A drone hitting the head of skier most definitely brings him to a fall or atleast into a tumble (which can cause bowstring injuries or broken bones, even at lower speeds) - not something one of the best skiers in the world wants to have.

[Murdoch]

Remember when Felipe Massa hit a 0.8kg spring face first at 260km/h? He survived without major head injuries and at no point did he risk his life. So no, a skier going at 40km/h hitting a drone moving at about the same speed doesn't risk his life. This is just vague approximation of course, maybe I could come up with some physics to prove it iif I had all the correct data.

 

Not that the title indicates his life was at risk, but...

 

That's a terrible example. Massa was injured pretty badly, it looked bloody horrendous tbh. By all accounts his injuries were described as life-threatening. He has a metal plate in his skull to strengthen it. He was incredibly fortunate to make such a recovery. His life was definitely at risk.

 

People have survived all kinds of extreme situations through mostly blind luck, that doesn't mean less extreme situations are therefore inherently safe.

[The_Stig]

 

and Schumacher hasnt recovered from a lesser impact, whats your point? of you knew anythng about biology then you would understand that its not just about the power of the impact but where the impact occurs. 

 

i like how you comment on my knowledge of physics then proceed to prove my point whilst thinking your defending your own. it combined impact of a falling drone and the high speed skiers head would have been much higher than that of Schumachers fall.

 

 

1 WTF has age got to do with it?

2 ill give you that one, but tell me how that helps when it smacks you in the face? also what about the fall afterwards

3 rock is harder than metal? is it sharper? there is hundreds of ways that the drone could do serious injury or even fatal, to just right it off and call it sensational is stupid.

 

1 more thing if snow isnt soft how do you make footprints in the snow?

1. Younger people tend to recover quicker from serious injuries

2. Fall afterward is pointless, I ski race, and you have countless padding and will side down the hill until you stop.

3. Its not metal, its hollow carbon fiber, did you see how it shattered when it hit the snow? That would've happened when it hit his helmet, absorbing most of the impact and leaving him with a far less serious injury

 

4. It's the upper crust of the snow it's soft for maybe 1/10 of an inch, but everything below that is rock-solid on a groomed ski hill.

[Sauron]

 

and Schumacher hasnt recovered from a lesser impact, whats your point? of you knew anythng about biology then you would understand that its not just about the power of the impact but where the impact occurs. 

 

i like how you comment on my knowledge of physics then proceed to prove my point whilst thinking your defending your own. it combined impact of a falling drone and the high speed skiers head would have been much higher than that of Schumachers fall.

 

Again, if you knew anything about physycs (or math) you'd know perpendicular vectors don't add up. And you'd also know that hitting a rock at speed x isn't the same as hitting a 1.1kg drone at the same speed. In the first case, the skier's weight matters, in the second it doesn't. Massa had a far better helmet in the race than Schumacher had while skiing and the impact was actually comparable since Schumacher's impact energy came from his own mass, while Massa only faced a piece of metal of 100 times lower mass. We can go on making hypotesis all day, but the fact is I proved with math in the first page that the helmet of the skier should have protected him more that adequately even from an unrealistically high drone fall of 50 metres - it was probably no more than 5. Not to mention my calculations didn't take air resistance or the energy absorbed by the drone by shattering into account, as @The_Stig pointed out, so the tolerance would have been even higher.

 

Not that the title indicates his life was at risk, but...

 

That's a terrible example. Massa was injured pretty badly, it looked bloody horrendous tbh. By all accounts his injuries were described as life-threatening. He has a metal plate in his skull to strengthen it. He was incredibly fortunate to make such a recovery. His life was definitely at risk.

 

People have survived all kinds of extreme situations through mostly blind luck, that doesn't mean less extreme situations are therefore inherently safe.

 

Fair enough, but that was a far more extreme impact than this one. The fact that Massa recovered seemed like a relevant piece of information to me, but of course that's just approximation - the math is far more reliable.

 

A drone hitting the head of skier most definitely brings him to a fall or atleast into a tumble (which can cause bowstring injuries or broken bones, even at lower speeds) - not something one of the best skiers in the world wants to have.

 

Of course, but the most he risked was loosing the race - which I realize now is what the title meant, but I thought they were saying it could have killed him.

[jaggysnake57]

snip

 

 

snip

i really have lost the fucking will to continue this but....to clarify, you are both saying that the drone could not have killed him let or caused serious injury? that no matter how many ways oyu play this moment out, no matter where the dronew hit or how he fell after he would always be fine?

[Sauron]

 

 

i really have lost the fucking will to continue this but....to clarify, you are both saying that the drone could not have killed him let or caused serious injury? that no matter how many ways oyu play this moment out, no matter where the dronew hit or how he fell after he would always be fine?

 

I am saying the impact with the drone could not have killed or seriously injured him given the gear he was wearing and the relatively low speeds he was skiing at. The fall after that is another thing entirely, but again, he wasn't going that fast and the snow for this sort of competition is checked for rocks and stuff like that - he could have been injured from a bad fall for sure, but he is a  trained professional who most likely knows how to fall "properly" and has the reflexes to do it at those low speeds.

[The_Stig]

 

 

i really have lost the fucking will to continue this but....to clarify, you are both saying that the drone could not have killed him let or caused serious injury? that no matter how many ways oyu play this moment out, no matter where the dronew hit or how he fell after he would always be fine?

Yup. the fall afterward isn't much of a worry either, he would fall onto his pad-covered race suit and slide a bit before coming to a stop. I ski race and I have witnessed countless crashes and have taken a few tumbles myself but at slalom speed the injuries from falling would be minor.

[Mo_z_Art]

seems like there is the need to explain why this became such a big topic (at least here in Austria): As marcel is the best skier that Austria has right now and as the country that inventet skiing we are deeply connectet to that sport. Losing our best skier (even if he would have just been injured) , would have been a real tragedy.

One time something happens that I know about and I can give some input on the forum, i'm on holidays without internet. i'm always late to the party...

[Sauron]

seems like there is the need to explain why this became such a big topic (at least here in Austria): As marcel is the best skier that Austria has right now and as the country that inventet skiing we are deeply connectet to that sport. Losing our best skier (even if he would have just been injured) , would have been a real tragedy.

One time something happens that I know about and I can give some input on the forum, i'm on holidays without internet. i'm always late to the party...

 

sure, but slalom is inherently full of risks - a drone hit being one of the minor ones.

[Snadzies]

I'm not too concerned about the drone physically hitting him (I'm sure it could do a bit of damage, though likely not life threatening) I'd be much more concerned about it landing in front of him or knocking him off balance causing him to fall and tumble.

While still likely not life threatening having his body and limbs bending and twisting is a perfect recipe for broken bones and torn tendons and ligaments.

[Qub3d]

As a person who grew up in Colorado and went skiing quite often, I'd like to add that being hit from a falling object from above and hitting an object horizontally (i.e. a tree) are very different. Aside from the different forces applied, the skis' breakaway clips might not function the same way in properly releasing the skier (especially a pro skier, who is going to have the clips set very tight), creating a dangerous situation in which legs end up bending the wrong direction.

 

There have been incidents of people at resorts being hit by falling poles/skis/iPhones from ski lifts before. I'd imagine a drone could impart equal or more damage, due to the greater height from which it falls.

 

None of this means I'm calling for the banning of drones. I would like more education in their use (don't fly directly over ppl's heads)  and maybe some more safety features in the form of low speed airbrakes, a parachute, or free-spinning rotors that can stabilize and slow a drone's decent (like in modern helicopters).