Tetsuya Ota

Le Mans drivers
Name = Tetsuya Ota


Caption =
Nationality = flagicon|JPN Japanese
Years = 24hLM|1993-24hLM|1996
Teams = Simpson Engineering, Ennea SRL/Ferrari Club Italia
Best Finish = "None" (DNF)
Class Wins = 0

nihongo|Tetsuya Ota|太田 哲也|Ōta Tetsuya|born 6 November 1959 is a racecar driver from Maebashi in the Gunma Prefecture, Japan. He is notable for surviving a fiery multi-car pileup he was involved in during a JGTC race at Fuji Speedway on May 3, 1998, caused by a safety car who sped twice over the recommended speed in torrential rain during a parade lap. Ota became seriously injured and as a result, he subsequently brought a lawsuit against the race organizers.

Life

Following his education at Musashi University, Ota turned to racing cars in 1982. He drove in the junior formula FJ1600 (Formula Japan) series before moving on to All-Japan F3 Championship in 1986 and then graduated to race in the domestic Formula 3000 series between 1987 to 1991, excepting 1989. Ota also competed in numerous domestic series such as (JTCC) Japanese Touring Car Championship, (JSPC) All Japan Sports Prototype Championship and Fuji Grand Champion Series as well as in Super Taikyu. [ja icon [http://www.r-style.to/ganbare/index2.htm がんばれ！太田哲也 Homepage ] ] While competing in JSPC, Ota was a factory driver for Mazda between 1989 to 1991.

Ota's first foray in racing outside Japan was when he competed in four straight 24 Hours of Le Mans races between 1993 to 1996, all with a DNF and one DNS.Mainichi Shimbun, October 29 2003]

In 1990 Ota married Atsuko and by 1993 he was a regular contributor to Neko Publishing's Tipo magazine; this gave him the privileges of being on the selection committee of the COTY (Car of the Year Japan). Since the inaugural season, Ota competed in the All-Japan GT Championship, as his speciality was racing Ferraris, especially in other series; Ota became the most highly regarded driver of the marque in Japan, but it was on May 1998, round 2 of the JGTC at Fuji Speedway, that things took for a change.

1998 JGTC Fuji incident

During the second round of the 1998 JGTC at Fuji Speedway, with 47,000 spectators in attendance of the 67 lap race, [http://www.supergt.net/jgtc/ex/gtc_cham/1998e/cha98_2/982race.htm Super GT: AUTOBACS CUP GT Championship 1998 Round 2 - Race Review, Fog Bank Ends 2nd Round of GTC] ] the race was held in torrential rain with limited visibility. Following the parade lap, the safety car drove through the starting line at 150 Km/h (93 mi/h), suddenly slowed down, causing 910 Racing's Porsche 911 RSR of Tomohiko Sunako to aquaplane and strike into the rear of Kaoru Hoshino's 911 GT2. Of the GT300 cars, the third car in front of the Porsches (and 22nd on the grid) [http://www.supergt.net/jgtc/ex/gtc_cham/1998e/cha98_2/982qual.htm AUTOBACS CUP GT Championship 1998 Round 2 - Qualify ] ] , the BMW M3 of Yasushi Hitotsuyama, behind, managed to avoid the Porsche by driving onto the grass and then back to the circuit, while the Porsche struck into a barrier and rested on the grass. A caution flag was waved out.

Seconds later, the Team Ferrari Club of Japan's Ferrari F355 Challenge of Ota, slowed down, causing his car to aquaplane and swerve left directly onto the Porsche; both exploded into a fireball on impact as a result. The Ferrari, after hitting the wall, slid across to the other side of the track and rested at the pit stop exit; another Porsche swerved to avoid Ota.

Luckily, the driver of the blazing Porsche managed to stumble out of his car with a fractured right leg and was shortly attended by rescue officials.

Shortly, the RE Amemiya RX-7 of Shinichi Yamaji stopped in front of the Ferrari while the other cars drove on, he took a fire extinguisher from his own car to extinguish the fire and then helped to release Ota's safety harness before marshals arrived.Asahi Shimbun; 30 October 2003]

Ota was trapped in his car for almost 90 seconds while exposed to 800-degree temperatures and had to be dragged out of the car by a safety marshal, to lay him on the ground, while his charred visor melted on his face. Ota while attempting to get up, at first fell; in another attempt, another marshal spotted Ota and picked him up to be bundled to the circuit's minivan, rather than the ambulance.

The race was to be rescheduled to a shortened 51 lap race, but thick fog rolled in over the circuit causing the race to be delayed. Organizers waited, hoping that the weather would improve, but by 17:00 the organizers announced that the race was officially called off and all results were voided. Ota was taken to a hospital in Gotemba where he was treated for third-degree burns to his face and neck area and minor burns to the rest of the body, but was fortunate to survive. He required plastic surgery to the nasal area as a result of the visor melting on his face. He also suffered from intoxication from the fumes he inhaled from the fire.

He was unable to function his right arm, right shoulder and fingers properly, causing an end to his professional career.

ubsequent court case

Reports on the incident were filed by the JAF and race organizers. One of the reports stated that Ota did not wear a fire resistant balaclava as required; which he denied. Also, the report stated that the safety team started fighting fire 20 seconds after the accident, but the reality was the flames of Ota's car were first fought by fellow drivers 50 seconds after the crash while Ota was still trapped inside.

As a result, Ota filed a damages suit against seven organizers for their failure to implement proper safety measures in Tokyo District Court in November 1999. Those held liable included circuit operator, Fuji Speedway, series organizer, Japan Automobile Federation (JAF); the race operator, VICIC (Victory Circle Club) and broadcaster TV Tokyo.

Eventually, six race sponsors and promoters including TV Tokyo, VICIC and Fuji Speedway were found guilty of gross negligence and were forced to pay ¥300 million ($2,500,000 US) compensation for pain and suffering on the grounds that the responsible parties had poorly prepared first aid response and used poorly trained race marshals. He eventually settled for ¥90million (US$800,000) on 29 October 2003 and was satisfied with the outcome. The claim against JAF was rejected as they could not be held responsible.

The judge, Tsuyoshi Ono, ruled that the safety car was driving at an excessive pace of 150km/h rather than at the safety pace of 60km/h, causing an accident after it suddenly slowed down and described the "firefighting and rescue preparations were also not up to scratch."

The court decided that organizers neglected their responsibility, as Ota was left in his burning vehicle for longer than the 30 seconds in which he should have been out of the car, and determined the pre-race agreement between Ota and the organizers not to pursue legal action in the event of an accident was unacceptable.

TV Tokyo, despite denying responsibility themselves throughout the case as they did not regard themselves as one of the race organizers, was found guilty of gross negligence for attempting to avoid responsibility for its part in the incident.

Despite his written pledge to organizers not to seek compensation in the event of an accident, which all drivers were required to sign, the judge ruled it as unfair and runs counter to public order and morals. Ono added that the pledge, branded by him as a "death pledge" aims to exempt organizers from responsibility allowing them to benefit economically from races.

The court ruled of Ota's error as he did not decelerate early enough.

The organizers had failed to take sufficient precautionary measures, such as having fire engines on standby as is required to extinguish fires and rescue drivers in 30 seconds or less.

The success of the lawsuit came from the live TV coverage of the incident which was shown in court.

Post court case

Shortly after, there has been a documentary film about the incident titled "Crash" nihongo2|(クラッシュ), released in 2003 as well as the book titled "Re•Birth", documenting his struggle to rebuild his life and his body.

A number of improved safety measures were introduced following the accident, including the introduction of a "doctor car" that contained medical and rescue specialists.

Ota has since continued to be involved in motorsport, but no longer on a professional scale and also runs a car tuning and race preparation garage, named Tezzo, specializing in Italian cars.

References

*youtube|UUFRpQ38NoQ|JGTC incident video
*youtube|wLJQPJmyyu0|TV coverage of the incident

External links

* [http://www.r-style.to/ganbare/ Official site]
* [http://www.keep-on-racing.com/ WEB KEEP ON RACING]
* [http://ameblo.jp/anchor/entry-10007757008.html 太田哲也さんインタビュー「全ての人にチャンスを ～Keep on Racing」]
* [http://ameblo.jp/tetsuyaota/ 太田哲也オフィシャルブログ]
* [http://www.bestlife.ne.jp/crash/ "Crash" official page]
* [http://www.tezzo.jp/ Tezzo]