Freak accident at Baypark speedway

A woman had both her arms broken by a flying piece of metal while she sat in the stands watching the final stockcar race at Baypark Stadium.
The 62-year-old Pyes Pa woman was in the top row of the stands on Saturday night when the piece of metal estimated to weight more than 2kg struck her arms.
The Bay of Plenty Times has learned the woman was sitting with her husband watching the North Island Stock Car Championship when the missile flew up from the track and hit her folded arms.
"If it wasn't for that (the fact her arms were folded) it probably would have killed her," a St John spokesperson said.
"It cannoned off her and they heard this almighty crash (as the metal hit the wall) behind them," he said.
"She's badly smashed one arm."
The woman, who was wearing a light jacket at the time, was carried down through the stands on a St John seat where she was given pain relief and taken to Tauranga Hospital.
A St John Ambulance spokesman said it was the second serious incident he had been to involving spectators at Baypark Speedway.
About two years ago he said a woman suffered broken ribs and was knocked unconscious when a piece of clay, about two thirds the size of a basketball, came flying off the track.
"I think other people should know about it, there's risks associated with motor racing, and not just for the drivers," the spokesperson said.
The woman was in a stable condition in Tauranga Hospital this morning.
Pete Harford, the patron of the Bay of Plenty Speedway Association, said it was a freak accident, particularly because not a lot of people were sitting high in the grandstand on Saturday night. "It was a very rare occurrence - a one in a million chance."
The club assumed that a piece of metal came off a race car and was spun up into the air by a following car in the race. Mr Harford said the woman was hit towards the end of the meet, either during the last stock car race on the programme or the saloon car final.
Few details were known by the club because the woman was dealt with directly by St John and word did not get out until the following day.
Mr Harford has heard of people unfamiliar with the best places to sit getting stung with flying lumps of clay from the track, but not hit with a piece of metal.
The safety fence was higher than standard and he said the promotor Willie Kay had a high standard of track safety. He said that after every race a ute holding six or seven people drove around the track picking up bits that had fallen off cars.
"Willie runs a very tight ship."
Mr Kay said he was preparing a written report into the incident for Speedway New Zealand as the first step in a comprehensive independent investigation.
He was not prepared to speculate on what happened, except to say the woman was sitting on a bend at the very back row of the terraces.
He agreed with Mr Harford that it was extremely rare for a spectator to be hit by a flying bit of metal.