Fan hit by debris from Austin Dillon crash calls it ‘terrifying experience’
A woman hit by debris from Austin Dillon’s car in the nasty last-lap crash during the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona Monday morning said she wondered as Dillon’s car was flying into the fence if it was the end of her life.
Five fans were treated for minor injuries after the wreck. Pieces of Dillon’s car flew towards the grandstands after his car flew into the catchfence after being hit by Denny Hamlin’s car.
“The car hit the fence, and I thought it was going to come right through the fence,” Cindy Meyers said. “I thought that was the end of my life when it was coming. … I’m glad me and my son are alive and whoever else might have got hurt in there.”
Meyers, 58, was at the race with her 32-year-old son. She said she was hit primarily in the shoulder with debris and knocked to the ground. She and her son are bruised and she told ESPN he took a piece of metal out of his tongue on Tuesday.
They were two of the four fans treated at Daytona’s infield care center. One fan was taken to Halifax Health and released a short time later.
“It was just a boom,” Meyers said. “Stuff just flew like a tidal wave, a big part of the fence came down and stuff was flying everywhere.
“I didn’t know if we were going to die, if that car was coming through that whole fence or what. I was mostly fearing I wasn’t going to be alive anymore. It was a terrifying experience.”
The two have retained an attorney who represented fans injured in the 2013 Xfinity Series crash involving Kyle Larson’s car flying into the catchfence and are requesting the speedway pay for their healthcare costs. They do not have insurance.
Over 20 fans were injured when Larson’s car hit the catchfence.
The crash happened in front of a newly-remodeled section of grandstands at Daytona. The track is in the midst of a reconstruction project and part of the renovations include new grandstands that are situated further from the track. It appeared via replays of the crash that much of the debris from Dillon’s car didn’t make it to the grandstands.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
