According to a report posted on the roadracingworld.com website (the publisher of Roadracing World, John Ulrich, owns the M4 Emgo Suzuki Team), M4 Emgo Suzuki rider Vincent Haskovec has suffered serious injuries, including paralysis below the chest, as a result of a crash during the AMA Formula Xtreme race at Infineon Raceway last Saturday.
Haskovec’s single-rider crash began with a lowside in a high-speed corner, which led to Haskovec impacting a stack of tires in front of a steel barrier, after which his following motorcycle also struck him.
In addition to a broken collarbone, broken ribs, and a punctured lung, Haskovec shattered his T6 vertebra during the accident. He has already undergone surgery to stabilize his back injury.
The extent of his paralysis could improve, and his team states the long-term prognosis is uncertain.
By all accounts, Haskovec is one of the friendliest and most enthusiastic riders in the paddock. According to Roadracing World, he has already received in excess of 1000 email messages since the accident occured. To express your good wishes to Vincent Haskovec, send your email to getwellvincent@gmail.com.
We join Roadracing World in expressing our dissapointment that AMA roadracers still face hard barrier impact zones that many World Championship riders, for instance, would not. We think it is time that the AMA require all tracks running AMA-sanctioned events to have Airfence, or equally effective soft barriers, in place in front of all walls or other objects that could be impacted by a rider following a crash during a race. Although Infineon has made significant steps toward improving safety in recent years, clearly more could be done to prevent this type of accident.
