ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 12, 1996 TAG: 9611120099
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WARRENTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
FAIRFAX HOSPITAL has upgraded Matthew Foster's condition from critical to serious. His mother, who threw herself into the path of the runaway hot rod to save him, died.
Vickie Lynn Foster threw herself over her little boy, arms outstretched in a final act of maternal protectiveness that probably saved his life as it cost her own.
Foster, her husband, Rick, and two of their children had front-row seats for a drag race Sunday when a hot rod skidded out of control and somersaulted into the stands.
An amateur video shows the car headed straight for the family. It also shows Foster, 36, lunging forward as the roof of the car slams into her body.
``She pushed herself on top of the boy. She could see'' the car coming, said Joe George, whose brother was at the wheel of the car as it jumped a guardrail and flipped several times.
Joe George, 36, played the video at home Monday, freezing the frame just at the point that the car glanced off Foster.
Foster was pronounced dead at the scene. Her son, Matthew, was flown to Fairfax Hospital, where his condition improved from critical to serious Monday, hospital spokeswoman Jane Albright said.
``There was just panic in the stands,'' said George Dilworth, 17, a track employee who jumped out of the way of the speeding car.
He and two others lifted the car off Foster's body and comforted Matthew, Dilworth said.
``He was crying and in shock. He had a bloody nose,'' Dilworth said.
Foster had four children, including one 6 months old, said Bruce Phillips, an attorney for the family who surveyed the crash scene Monday.
Rick Foster did not return a telephone message left for him at the hospital. Phillips said he likely would have no comment.
A day after the wreck, skid marks charted the path the souped-up Dodge took down the straightaway at Sumerduck Dragway. A bowed guardrail, crumpled chain-link fence and smashed wooden bleachers also traced the car's flight.
Two half-empty bottles of beer stood on the empty bleachers above where the Foster family had sat.
``You don't plan for something like that,'' said track owner Roger Curtis. ``It's one of those things that you know could happen, but you hope it never happens.''
Curtis called the crash a freak accident, and Fauquier County Sheriff Joe Higgs said charges are not likely against the hot-rod driver.
The accident happened when plugs holding the car's antifreeze blew out, unleashing a slick more slippery than oil, said Curtis, a former stock car racer.
``Antifreeze is the slickest stuff you can run in. It's like glass, and there ain't no way to steer,'' Curtis said.
Driver Daniel Ray George, 40, struggled to hold the car on the track, but lost control just as he approached the bleachers, his brother said.
Curtis estimated the car's speed at 80 mph, but Joe George said it was probably traveling no more than 60. The two cars that ran just ahead of George hit speeds above 100 mph, Curtis said.
Daniel George's car landed right-side up and partly atop Foster's body.
George, protected by a special cage inside the car, walked away from the crash.
``He's pretty shaken up. He's keeping to himself,'' said his brother.
Six other fans were slightly hurt as they tried to get out of the way, sheriff's deputies said.
Daniel George, a paving contractor, had taken one qualifying run for a drag race that paid $1,000 to the winner. He was alone on the track for his second attempt when the car spun out of control, Curtis said.
The day's headline race, a National Hot Rod Association street car race, was scrapped after the crash. It will be run next week.
It was the first spectator casualty in the 33 years Curtis has owned the rural dragway, he said. Denny Darnell, spokesman for the NHRA based in Glendora, Calif., said no spectators have been killed by runaway cars at NHRA-licensed tracks at least since the 1970s.
``I would not think that the sport is dangerous,'' Darnell said. ``Like any motor sport, speed is involved, but the rules and regulations make it a safe environment for drivers and spectators.''
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. A videotape from WJLA-TV shows the souped-up Dodgeby CNBcareening into the stands at Sumerduck track. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING FATALITY