Parents planning to file suit in fatal race-car training crash

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, September 5, 2001

Associated Press

YAKIMA — The parents of a 17-year-old Everett girl killed while training at an auto-racing school believe she was driving an unsafe car.

Ashley Bergman, a senior at Cascade High School, died in May when her late-model Monte Carlo race car slammed into a wall at 40 to 50 mph at the Yakima Speedway, where she had been a student in a two-day program run by the Competitive Edge Racing School.

On Aug. 23, Steve Bergman drove from Everett to Yakima to look at the impounded car and saw two things that bothered him.

"I figured I’d find something wrong but not something staring me in the face like that. This was a totally survivable crash, looking at the car," he said. "My daughter should still be alive."

He believes the driver’s seat was improperly welded, and that the seat came loose from the mounting in the crash, shoving her against the door.

Also, the window net inside the car wasn’t mounted at the bottom; it was just tucked in, he said.

Ashley was wearing a helmet, but when her head hit the net, it gave way and she hit the racetrack retaining wall, suffering massive, and fatal, head injuries.

The nets have two purposes, said Arnie Kuhns, president of the nonprofit SFI Foundation, which sets standards for much of racing’s safety equipment.

"One is to keep things inside from going out. The other is to keep things outside from going in," he said. "Obviously, the net needs to be attached, top and bottom."

NASCAR, the stock-car racing association, requires that nets be attached to welded mounts on top and bottom, fitting tightly across the driver’s window.

Bergman also believes the adjustable seat in the car was too weak to withstand the impact of the crash.

"It wasn’t fully welded," he said. "It was totally inadequate."

NASCAR drivers use only stationary seats, said John Griffin, a spokesman for the Daytona Beach, Fla.-based association.

"The teams see more value in the seat being in a stationary position, welded," he said.

Bergman, and his wife, Terri, said they intend to file a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Competitive Edge Racing School.

School founder Randy Koch disputes the claim that the school’s cars are unsafe.

"It’s our contention that we were not at fault," he said.

Koch said Ashley’s death affected him both personally and professionally.

"I’m horrified this happened," he said. "I relive it every night. It has affected me and impacted me enough that I am definitely more decisive in the classroom instruction in explaining what to do if a car gets away from you."

The school’s insurance company is investigating the crash.

Auto racing and its schools are unregulated, and the Bergmans said they would like to see that changed as well.

"Someone has to be accountable for this," Steve Bergman said. "Even carnival rides have inspectors."

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