THE FINAL WORD ....

Primetime are pleased to announce that The BBC have honoured their insurance agreement and the team have received compensation for the total loss of Vampire. It must be acknowledged that the BBC have made no admissions of liability

The crash was investigated fully by the Health and Safety Executive, assisted by the North Yorkshire Police, the BBC and by Primetime. The former two organisations have published their findings. Primetime do not agree with all the conclusions reached. Mark and Colin are pleased that the HSE acknowledge that the Vampire saved Richard’s life as much as the helmet he wore, if not more so.

The cause of the accident is accepted as being a puncture to the front offside tyre. Whether the catastrophe could have been avoided will remain a matter of conjecture. It remains the opinion of Primetime that the puncture was one of the risks that every racing, or dragster, or for that matter, any, driver takes by getting into a car. It is a question of whether the outcome should be a drama or a catastrophe. In this case it was a catastrophe.

Every driver of Vampire has been trained to deploy the parachute in the event of anything untoward, and not to touch the footbrake. The HSE sadly confirm that the brakes were applied and it took too long to deploy the parachute. Primetime have personal experience that a puncture at very high speed is frightening, but survivable, if the driver does what he is meant to do at the right moment.

Vampire has now been sold, and the team wish the new owner every pleasure in owning such a historic vehicle. The rollcage has gone missing whilst the car was not in the teams possession and the search for it continues. In the summer of 2008 Primetime are organising a party for all previously trained drivers of Vampire: it should be quite a bash.

STATEMENT ABOUT THE HSE REPORT ON THE TOP GEAR ‘VAMPIRE’ CRASH

ISSUED BY PRIMETIME LAND SPEED ENGINEERING,
THE OWNERS & OPERATORS OF ’VAMPIRE’

22nd JUNE 2007

‘Vampire’ was one of a pair of jet dragsters operated by PrimeTime Land Speed Engineering whose principals are Colin Fallows and Mark Newby. In July 2000 Colin Fallows set the current Outright British Land Speed Record in ‘Vampire’ at an average speed of 300.3mph.

In July 2006, Colin Fallows posted an average speed of 310mph in ‘Vampire’ and Mark Newby posted an average speed of 339mph in the teams other jet dragster ‘Split Second’ at an official record-setting event in the UK.

In both cases the times/speeds were officially recorded by the governing body of motorsports, the Motorsports Association. Each car posted a terminal speed considerably in excess of its average: in the case of ‘Vampire’, over 330mph and in the case of ‘Split Second’ over 350mph.

Ignoring their previous drag racing experience in the worlds most powerful piston-powered vehicles, between them the team partners Colin Fallows & Mark Newby are the most experienced jet dragster operators outside the USA, and have more than 37 years and 3,000 accident-free jet car runs between them.

The team had successfully and safely trained 10 other drivers to drive ‘Vampire’, amongst them a salesman, an energy consultant, a 17 year old, a housewife and a professional motoring journalist.

The teams’ experience, standards of operational excellence and unrivalled safety record are sufficiently high for them to have been approved at the highest levels within the MoD, the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force to perform with their cars on one of NATO’s key European assets, the runway at RAF Fairford, just weeks before the Top Gear crash.

All of the team cars are designed, built, maintained and constantly updated to embrace or exceed all current standards and recommendations for operational use. Not one of them has ever failed to pass scrutineering by the Motorsports Association, nor have any of them ever needed to have rectification work of any kind performed in order to pass these inspections.

The teams reputation for putting safety first is well known in drag racing, airshow and speed record breaking circles. The safety of the driver, team members and the general public has always been the primary concern of the team. Both team principals have aviation backgrounds and the disciplines employed in the operation of their cars are just as rigorous as those they have embraced throughout their equally safe and accident-free aviation careers.

It is this self-imposed discipline and attention to training, detail and constant learning which has allowed them to perform more than 3,000 runs in their jet dragsters without an accident.

The safe operation of jet dragsters requires that all drivers remain within the briefed operating parameters at all times. Because of the rate of acceleration and high terminal speeds involved, any deviation from the required operating procedures will be penalised instantly and often without hope of recovery. These are almost certainly the most unforgiving cars in motorsport and are intolerant of the slightest mishandling.

Comments on the HSE Draft Report

The HSE report represents a thorough investigation into a high speed incident. It contains some errors, and completely omits some matters. Our view is that, whilst not being perfect it is a fair view of the events of the 20 September 2006. The HSE have reported on an accident which took place in a very specialist area, and there are no independent experts with relevant experience of such high speed events available to assist. We will discuss with the HSE what we view as the controversial aspects of the report. The report draws no conclusion as to blame for the accident, and we concur. It is for others, in a different forum, to interpret the report and other evidence to apportion blame.

The report confirms the high standards of driver training provided by the team, evidenced by comments made to the HSE by both the BBC’s driver and a professional motoring journalist who was also trained to drive Vampire.

The report accepts Primetime’s tyre selection and finds the type of tyre used on Vampire suitable for Elvington.

The tyres were bought new not long before the crash. The rear tyres fitted at the time of the crash had just two high-speed passes on them and the two front tyres had no passes on them prior to the crash date. The suppliers did not indicate the date of manufacture to PrimeTime.

The report mentions that the track was inspected and cleaned prior to the commencement of filming, but does not mention that the track was also inspected and cleaned again prior to every run the car made on the day

The report commends the design, construction and maintenance of the car as being key elements in assuring the drivers survival of the highest-speed crash ever seen in Europe.

Although the report mentions a pre-event visit to the Primetime workshops by a colleague of the BBC’s driver, it does not state that the person who visited on behalf of the driver was actually present on site at the filming day itself.

The report states that it takes longer than 0.4 sec for the driver to remove the right hand from the steering wheel and move the parachute lever to its ‘fully back’ (ie deployed) position. We can prove that it can be done in this time..

The report confirms that when the tyre blew, the BBC’s driver made no attempt to reach for the parachute lever with his right hand, employing it instead to steer into the skid.

The report confirms that when the tyre blew, the BBC’s driver applied braking.

The report states that the drivers “instantaneous reaction to the tyre blow-out seems to have been that of a competent high-performance car driver, namely to brake and try to steer into the skid”.

The report confirms that the BBC film crew removed their apparatus immediately following the removal of the driver from the wreckage.

Summary

The HSE’s recommendations to Primetime have been noted and will be actioned accordingly. Being of an administrative nature, none of their recommendations impact upon the causes of the accident.

We are sure that the BBC will respond positively to the relevant criticisms and recommendations contained in the report.

The BBC’s driver had showed an above average ability to learn how to drive a type of car which is totally unforgiving. We were satisfied with his progress, encouraged by his obvious desire to be as professional as he possibly could, and pleased to see him respond so positively to the established training procedures. That is why, under our tutelage, he was able to run a peak speed of 314mph.

It is regrettable that a previously unheard-of type of tyre damage subsequently occurred and that this triggered the most awful episode in the lives of all concerned.

PrimeTime still remain uncompensated for the loss of an Iconic vehicle, which had been lovingly cherished by the same hands for 25 years, and which still holds the outright British Land Speed Record.

The report reveals lessons to be learned by all, and we are delighted to see that the BBC’s driver appears to have made a complete recovery. We wish him and his family well.