Sue Lexus. Their vehicle is obviously far more rigid than is prudent.

Why is the one emergency crew member being fuzzed out there? Was there an unfortunate plumber-pants moment that was inappropriate for dinner-hour TV?

Too bad for the racer. That's got to be a suck way to die; in a soapbox race car.

Rest in Peace, young thrillseeker. I always hate to see people get hurt R.I.P. Always such a tragedy to see kids getting hurt while searching for thrills and living their dreams.

Also though, I gotta say- you play with fire and you have to expect that someone will get hurt eventually--no way around it. Even if you take every precaution, eventually someone will get hurt. It could have been a fluke thing, I hope it doesn't mean the end of illegal soapboxing!

damn. I did something similar, tobogganing down a hill when I was three. One of the worst nights of my young life. Slid head first into the bumper of a parked car. Go home and my mom fixes me some hot chocolate to ease the pain of the baseball-sized knot on my forehead. I guess I was a little woozy because I spilled the near-boiling hot chocolate all over me giving me 2nd degree burns on my chest and a trip to the hospital (yes my mom felt terrible for giving it to me too hot).

@dolo54: If there were a movie version of that, you would be played by Ben Stiller.

I can't play the video, is that a corpse on the pavement in the still picture??

[groups.yahoo.com]

The powers that be will, naturally, use this as justification for a "crackdown" on the "epidemic" of illegal soapbox racing.

Alright, San Fernando Valley Lawmakers, how about this:

Sanction some downhill events. Once a month, close off a few streets, line them with hay bales, and charge an entry fee (why does a revenue possibility always speak to lawmakers?).

@workingonyourinvoice: Later I almost died in a freak gasoline fight accident...

man, that sucks. my thoughts go out to his friends and family.

@poxpopulus: I didn't know Matt or Jesse, but after reading that, I like them both.

I do hope this doesn't stop them from racing. This kind of activity is necessary in the society of today as exemplified by the policeman in the video declaring that they wanted to put a stop to it. I'm sorry this youg man died, but at least he didn't go in any of the truly senseless ways that befall ordinary peole just like him everyday.

It's all down hill from here

@smalleyxb122: I dunno, that sounds like sanctioning fun, and as we all know, fun is dangerous...

How much you want to bet that the Lexus owner sues.....

How in the world was it not an SUV?

you think the soap box brakes were slippery? WAKKA WAKKA!

Shit shit shit shit.

And they just made a big push to make things safer and limit crowds and stuff.

I went to most of the last season to shoot pictures (search flickr if you want), and didn't get around to contacting them to figure out when this season's first race was going to be.

Kinda glad I wasn't there.

I really really hope Paul doesn't catch shit for this. He's a cool guy and did his best to keep the spirit of the SFVISBF alive while trying to make it safer and low-profile.

Damn.

Darwin award for creatively removing oneself from the gene pool?

Keep racing. Fight the power!

@dolo54: Gasoline. Fight. Accident.
One of these words does not belong.

This will bring the safetycrats out of the woodwork. I don't think our lives were meant to be squandered in constant climate control. Secure in our little boxes strapped in with helmets and fire extinguishers and arch supports and leather articulated lumbar correct arm chairs.

Don't forget your breath mints and your dandruff shampoo and a clean pair of underwear. You don't have enough going on if that's what you worry about.

I feel for the people involved but I don't think it's appropriate to close up shop and give up because somebody lost their life doing something they should have known could be dangerous.

It's gotten ridiculous between air bags and ABS and all the automation and electronic gizmos and supplemental restraints. I don't want to be that fucking safe.

I don't want a cavity search every time I try to go across a border or get in a plane or order a pay-per-view movie. I think it's natural for a percentage of us to fuck with danger and I'm sick to death of hearing about social costs and "costs to business" and the other statistics to make it look like danger seekers are costing the good men and women of this country hard earned money.

Maybe it does cost society money but not near the amount that it costs us to fund the military industrial complex to find new and interesting ways to get us killed. Fuck the money. It's dangerous crossing the street, driving to work, changing a damn light bulb. What are you going to do, wrap everybody in EPS at birth and never let them out?

So scrape the boy up, find a big ass hill, and break the law in his name. Celebrate his life, don't mourn his death. We got a short time on this planet and most of us got things to do. Everybody else can slap their sandals over their socks and go wring their hands in their bomb shelters.

Crap.

@dolo54:

Just because you're really, really good looking doesn't mean you can't die in a freak gasoline fight.

@Vintage Racer: Well, if there's damage to the Lexus, the owner should be entitled to compensation for the repairs.

@bruxell: What would you expect to happen when you let people race downhill in hacked-together homebuilt creations that can reach dangerous speeds? I hate to be a downer but a situation like that, with lax safety rules, is just asking for an accident and one eventually happened.

I guess it's kind of ironic the Lexus is such a "safe" car.

@mytdawg: COT M-Fing D.

For some reason all I can think of is
"Obey Gravity, It's The Law"

@smalleyxb122:

Agreed. A quality family indeed; no talking about lawsuits, just of loss. Half mast for these hoons. RIP.

They're gonna be sending these soap box cars out to the crushers now if you get caught.

Or they'll convert them into undercover police interceptors just like that Cobra a few weeks ago.

@mytdawg: Wonderfully put sir.

It's not like this man died from unfortunate unpreventable mishaps, he was doing this because he wanted to. How many of us here have had a little mishap from doing what we love? Sliding into a ditch pushing a corner a bit too hard, sprained ankle from playing football with the guys, recurring rash from a drunken romp with a lady of questionable repute...

Damn.

I know, I know. Law of averages, unregulated thrill sport, and all, yada yada. But still.

Damn.

@mytdawg: Maybe it does cost society money but not near the amount that it costs us to fund the military industrial complex to find new and interesting ways to get us killed.

Why do you hate America?

[/kidding]

@mytdawg: There's a fine line between having fun (which may not necessarily be perfectly safe) and doing something stupid that's likely to cause harm to yourself or others. Fortunately illegal soapbox derby racing isn't as likely to cause injury to others as illegal street racing, but they both encompass pretty similar levels of stupid, especially considering the quality of some of the derby carts these kids race.

@Markstre302: And nobody can stop them from doing what they're doing, and that's fine with me. I just don't want to hear complaining when you've got someone who's suffered a severe head injury and their insurance won't cover it because "illegal soapbox derby racing accident" isn't covered under their health insurance policy.

Just for the record, my family is convinced that if I take one more blow to my head they'll be buying me coloring books the rest of my holidays. For what it's worth.

And as always, don't try this at home kids. If you survive many many years of stupid stunts, the injuries come back to haunt you long after you forgot what happened.

@mytdawg: ur a thrilllbilly?

I just don't want to hear complaining when you've got someone who's suffered a severe head injury and their insurance won't cover it because "illegal soapbox derby racing accident" isn't covered under their health insurance policy.

Alright, fair enough. But where do you draw the line? If that's the case then I want to see riding horses as an exclusion. I want to see riding bicycles and skiing as excluded. I want to see everything that anybody anywhere may possibly see as encouraging injury or death as being excluded from health insurance policies. Moving a television set upstairs might be excluded.

If you are going to pick and choose riding motorcycles or car racing or snowmobiles or extreme chess than you are making subjective determinations on whose risk taking activities are acceptable and whose aren't. It's amazing how many people think that skiing is a respectable risk taking activity but skateboarding isn't. It's just perspective.

Either health insurance covers your health regardless of activities or it doesn't and there's no sense in having it. That's about where we are now.

@-chet: Nah, I'm just stupid and got shorted on common sense. Few too many bike accidents and a broken tow chain to the head whilst 4-wheeling. I'll have to check back later cause I gotta drive here in a few minutes.

@mytdawg: Well, you're right, it shouldn't be excluded. What I'm really trying to get at is that it's important to take calculated risks. Walking across the street can be dangerous, that's why I look to check that I won't get smacked by a car when I do it. It mitigates the risk. When you race cars, you buy a helmet, 4-point harness, and install a roll cage to mitigate the risk. When you go skiing, you get at least the minimum level of training required to control yourself before you go hop on the slopes. The problem with illegal soapbox derby racing is that, while fun, no one is doing anything to control the risk in what would otherwise be an awesome sport, and in the end, that's just stupid.

Death has lived with racing since we took pleasure in it. But so has life. It is unfortunate that it happens but the fact that its called the Illegal Soap Box Federation shouldn't be overlooked. This form of racing, like many forms of gravity-induced racing, should actually be more properly promoted.

The physical aspect of manipulating the Soap Box is a form of exercise versus playing Gran Turismo. It requires some basic mechanical aptitude and mechanically-applied creativity not to mention the design prowess of these cars using a wide variety of materials and techniques. All for the sake of creating a zero-emission sport where the tragic irony of a parked SUV was an unknown hazard.

Shouldn't it be legal so that the sport can become more safer? Shouldn't it be legal at a time gasoline is $109 a barrel, in addition to our society being the most obese of Earth's cultures, all the while America is feeding corn to cars and not children? Why not legalize the Soap Box Federation? Whether or not this form of racing is legal won't prevent death. Making it legal, however, would encourage the act of preserving life for the racers and maybe the rest of the planet.

The stairway to heaven also has a hill.

@mytdawg: Amen!

Having followed them for sometime now, my sense is that -- for better or for worse -- they took no small amount of pride in the outlaw aspect of the sport.

@lascauxcaveman: "...If you kill yourelf here, we can't kill 'em over there..."

I would like to nominate Jesse Garcia's comments about his brother's death, posted on [groups.yahoo.com] as the COTD. If this isn't how you feel about life, and how to live it, self-reliance and self-responsibility, then turn in your hoon card and buy a fucking Camry.

And for those that would pick apart the choices Matt made...just go fuck yourselves.

@mytdawg:

"What are you going to do, wrap everybody in EPS at birth and never let them out?"

IMO, this situation is the limiting case of a litigious society extended far enough into the future.

I almost prefer the Matrix.

@elwood: I wasn't trying to pick a fight (or even convince anyone), it's just a pet peeve of mine.

I certainly don't want to encourage people to do illegal and dangerous things and specifically if they aren't equipped to be doing such things. Mentally, physically or otherwise. Some people just shouldn't try dangerous shit and that's all there is to it. You have to know your limits. I've found mine, thanks.

Over my lifetime I have seen a specific trend towards eliminating risk taking behaviors and I find that, in and of itself, unacceptable.

All of us don't fit into the 9 to 5 corporate bullshit view of the world. And somewhere there are people with spreadsheets trying to figure out what the exact cost of a skateboarding accident is and how to minimize any possible way of having to help said skateboarder out if there is any possibility of them ever needing medical attention.

So obviously it hits a nerve. I do participate in a number of activities seen as risky by some, most of them are legal still but I don't know for how long. Although it's something I likely would have tried if it had come up when I was younger, I probably wouldn't try illegal soap box racing now. Take the risk out of it and it wouldn't be the same, I guarandamntee you.

But I understand it and even envy them. To many of us there is no reward without risk. I only really feel like I'm alive when I do something that kind of scares me. Otherwise I'm just waiting around to die, taking up space and breathing valuable oxygen.

I'm sorry someone lost their life but the participants knew what they were getting into. At least it was not an innocent bystander. I think that would be a lot harder to deal with.

@milo_carrera: Here, here.

It takes a lot for a family to not want to lash out in the event of such a tragedy. To keep that perspective is a tremendous testament to their character. I can only hope this doesn't devolve into a quagmire of finger pointing.

@milo_carrera: A toast to a sad family and the remaining lunatics. May they find a way to channel their grief.

There's your proof - SUVs kill.

better than dying in Iraq

Sad story. It is very unfortunate (obviously a severe understatement) that this accident took place, but I do hope they continue racing.

Tey had a special about this in Hotrod a couple months ago.

I'd still do it, albeit with a little more appreciation for possible hazards. Sadly, there are no hills in Detroit.

In my opinion, the problem w/ the lawyer (sorry for those caught by association)-run society is that those who really take risks on a regular basis (off-roading, sports, racing, stunts, etc.) accept their responsibility and mortality. It's those who do not go out and expose themselves to the fun of truly living and experiencing that find it repulsive when something slightly negative/painful (hot McDonald's coffee, etc.) occurs and reminds them that they are vulnerable, despite their best efforts to forget. And that's where some scumbag comes in to help them forget again, and make some fast money. In my opinion, as it seems with many others here, you must embrace and accept your mortality to enjoy it.
If I'm gonna die, I wanna be doing something fun.

The odds are probably worse to get in to a real car and drive to work. Shit happens. RIP, noble soul.

If we stopped something everytime the first person got killed, we wouldn't have snowsports (or any sports), auto racing, divorce, or sex with Arabian stallions. I'm pretty sure, if you google long enough, there's even been a fatal curling accident.