I'd imagine there are a few more painters and decorators in the UK than TT participants. Perhaps, if the race was run six days a week throughout the year, the figures might stack up differently.
Absolutely correct...per head, I'm sure there are a lot more deaths. To me the only question is how you're going to go out, because we all are. Between the pursuit of TT glory and stripping wallpaper there is only one choice.
I propose the "Painters and decorators TT" - A bunch of middle-aged blokes who turn up hours late, still manage to show 50% of their ass cracks even in motorbike leathers, stop multiple times through the lap to take a 20 minute dump and have a cuppa and then leave early because they need to "pick up some more materials".
Thousands of white vans screaming around the isle of man. The screaming would be from the fan belts, obviously.
its a risky profession but these guys know full well the risks they take before they get on. what i find weird is in my teens/20s i was like them my parents forced me to give up riding it wasn't untill i was 33 and with 3 kids to look after that i went back to it and got my license. but some of these guys are much older than me and still doing it i both admire them and fear for their families that's the world famous Dunlop family https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/motorsport/48297727 Liam Neeson did a powerful brilliant documentary on the Dunlops its on Amazon prim and well worth a watch https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3546370/ its even more sad as William Dunlop has since died racing and if you have access it a proper good 3D TV ITT:closer to the edge, is worth a watch https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1698010/
Believe it or not, the man is being hailed as a hero for losing his life "doing what he loved", which is indicative of the lack of perspective on these matters. It's up to each person to do as they will, but a hero this guy most certainly was not. It's tragic that the guy lost his life... it's even more tragic that his little girl lost her father, and his wife is now a widow. All for a race? Really?
The wife kind of had the widow thing coming for marrying into a road racing family, same thing about personal responsibility applies to her as it did to him. But yeah, with kids its a different story since they have no influence over who their parents are, so it is fair to expect the parents to do absolutely everything in their power to ensure the kids are never deprived of their parents. In other words: Breed or race, but never both.
You don't enter with the expectation of dying, it is just something that can happen, it is not that common, much in the same as it could happen to you before leaving the house, on the way to work in any number of ways, move on, it is not a big deal, your hobby is your hobby, the risks you take come down to the way you weigh things up and how much you want to take on board, they will have all done their own risk assessment. I went to a sprint last year, did the sighting lap and decided the risks at the venue were to high for me to take on, I bailed out went home, everyone else continued and had a great day, no issues, well a few crashes. my reccy run of venue weeks later some one did die there, doesn't validate my decision, it could happen anywhere any time, I just wasn't feeling it that day, even at simpler venues I could get it wrong and be in trouble. Yes its tragic for the family if death happens but even more tragic would be never doing anything you love because of it, a number of my friends who never do x, y and z now because of constraints imposed by family I find that tragic as they seem to have lost a little spark, probably because they are no longer getting that hit of happy chemicals you get from winning at life
Selfish bitch? Far from it. But just like he had to accept and live with the massively increased risk of death so does anyone who willingly associated with him. The only ones I'd exempt from that are the kids as they never had a choice in the matter.
