What the…
An accomplished 13-year-old motorcycle racer died Sunday after he fell off his bike and was run over by another motorcycle at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The racer, Peter Lenz of Vancouver, Wash., was pronounced dead by the Marion County coroner, who said Lenz had sustained “traumatic injuries.” Lenz crashed on a warm-up lap before his race and was struck by 12-year-old Xavier Zayat, who was uninjured.
Yikes. Look: I’m not one to make sweeping value judgments, especially when it comes to parenting. And any way you look at it, that’s an awful, awful tragedy.
But holy crap, what the hell? 13-year-olds and 12-year-olds racing motorcycles at 100 miles an hour? Who thinks that’s a good idea?
I’m sorry. Just… I’m sorry. The AP story mentions that the accident may “fuel a debate about how young is too young for racers to be competing,” and I’ll go ahead and say 12 is too young. Have you seen a 12-year-old lately? That’s a child.
And don’t get me wrong, I was doing plenty of stuff that put my life in danger when I was 12 — most of it involving fire. But that’s exactly the point: 12-year-olds have terrible judgment. If someone said to 12-year-old me, “hey kid, you wanna go race 100-mile-an-hour motorcycles?” I’d be all, “Hell yes I do!” Now, at 29, I’d think about it more.
Just seems like a situation where some responsible party has to step in. The state, the sport’s governing body, someone.
Terrible things happen all the time and no amount of governing will prevent every tragedy. But to me it seems like a good idea to at least take kids out of harm’s way.
