Teen driver loses life in jet dragster accident
In a tragic accident on Sunday, 17-year-old Canadian drag-racing protégé Kendall Hebert died when her jet-powered dragster crashed into a wall at Toronto Motorsport Park in the suburb of Cayuga, outside Hamilton, Ontario.
The accident occurred during a demonstration, not a race. The young Hebert had just finished a quarter-mile sprint down the track, reaching over 480 km/h (just under 300 mph) when the car inexplicably hit a concrete wall, sending the vehicle rolling and throwing its driver out of the cockpit. To make matters even worse, Kendall's family was in attendance and saw the crash that took their young daughter's life. According to provincial police, the event was also being broadcast over the internet.
(For those who have been following the news and might be wondering what made this accident fatal, while Top Gear's Richard Hammond is alive and recovering after a similar accident, the difference may lie in Kendall sadly having hit a wall directly, while Hammond rolled over grass, lessening the impact.)
Kendall came from a racing family; her father and sister both race competitively, and Kendall was looking forward to joining them after her 18th birthday, which she sadly never reached. Our condolences to the bereaved Hebert family.
(Our gratitude to Kevin for having sent us the sad news.)
[Source: the Toronto Sun]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
GMan 6:21PM (10/03/2006)
Noah -- WTF does "inexplicably hit a concrete wall" mean, it fell out of the sky? Get your writing coherent, you're getting paid to do it. And gratitude for someone sending sad news? You guys make my eyes bleed.
Reply
Stoneman 6:27PM (10/03/2006)
Her jet car veered off course and slammed into a barrier wall...made of concrete.
Stoneman
http://www.stonemanautoreview.com
Reply
David P Brown 6:51PM (10/03/2006)
GMan, cool it. How about we respect the story a bit more less complaining about the writing style not being perfect in your eyes.
Reply
Jason_801 7:01PM (10/03/2006)
"Get your writing coherent..." Is that your idea of sentence structure while, ironically, lambasting another person about the very same thing?
Also, starting a sentence with "And..." is considered poor form.
Back to school!
Reply
Ty 7:14PM (10/03/2006)
You guys have to be kidding me. Remarks the likes of "oh well, one less canadian" and bickering about grammar and sentence structure are crude, immature and most of all completely uncalled for. The story of the loss of a life in this kind of situation is always unfortunate, no matter the manner in which the information is given, nor the country of origin of the party involved. She died doing something that most of us dream of and will never be able to actually do. My sincerest condolences.
Reply
DPC car videos 7:46PM (10/03/2006)
That is very sad, 17 is just too young for such an event.
Reply
FrankTheCrank 8:50PM (10/03/2006)
The parents should be charged with murder.
What business does a 17 year old KID have racing a jet powered vehicle? Are the parents on CRACK?
For god's sake!
Reply
ben 8:02PM (10/03/2006)
With all of these recent incidents, it sounds to me that jet propelled land vehicles should be banned. I don't think that there is a need for such a dangerous drag vehicle. This is a very sad accident to have happened.
Reply
Dennis 10:45PM (6/24/2007)
People should not race jet cars? People should not drive or ride in airplanes! Certainly they should stay out of boats and they should not even wear shoes. People should not ride in elevators or escalators. People should not ride on carnival rides or go to Disneyworld. People should live in a cave and never go outside.
People should not listen to Ben.
kurt 8:07PM (10/03/2006)
Mom, dad? You think maybe 17 year olds maybe shouldn't be driving jet powered automobiles? I'm guessing she was no Schumacher in terms of physical strength or skill.
Reply
PitBit 8:37PM (10/03/2006)
Hey, if you want to participate in dangerous types of sports... then you have to accept the dangerous risks involved. The girl knew what she was getting into. I'm sure she knew the risks. You play with fire; you might get burned eventually. Que sera , sera.
Reply
CaptSnuffy 8:59PM (10/03/2006)
That's terrible. So what if it's dangerous, it's something she obviously loved to do. They knew the risks, but that doesn't make it any better that she died in a horrifying accident while her family watched helplessly. Have some respect.
Reply
henryAnn 9:07PM (10/03/2006)
I think she was speeding. speed kills. I was not allowed out of the house until I was 18. My parents would have shit a brik If they knew I was doing 300 mph in the quarter mile. I didn't and they didn't. I wonder if she had a drivers license.
Reply
james f. 9:18PM (10/03/2006)
I certainly feel a great deal of sorrow for her family and I wish them the best in their hour of loss. All you 'Ha! Ha! I'm using the internet!!!' commenters deserve to lose a testicle at least.
That said, maybee jet powered cars aren't a good idea? Don't get me wrong here; As I firmly believe racing as a whole creates technologies that benefit all of us, even the most apathetic end user. But rocket powered cars seem like a foolhardy thing for a a child(or richard hammond) to be tooling around in.
Reply
That One Person 9:49PM (10/03/2006)
Uh Henry, on a race track, you dont need a drivers license to race (well at least here in Michigan you dont...dont know about Canada). I have friends who were 13 and drove 400 - 500 hp Mustangs and Camaros (and even more powerful and faster cars than that) in races every weekend. They didnt have their drivers licenses.
This is unfortunate. Very sad...
And I agree with james, you idiots who think its funny to make fun of someone who died or just make ignorant comments need to be taken out back and dealt with.
And someone mentioned banning jet powered drag racing cars. Yes, they are insane. And I think people should have proper training with them. But banning them is kind of a dumb idea. Why not ban Le Mans racing? Or F1 racing? Or stock car racing? Or any other kind of racing? Why not ban driving altogether?
I personally think she was a little young. But look at what happened to Richard Hammond. He is well into his 30s and came close to dying. Or the countless other professional racers who died while racing. It was an unfortunate event...it happens. Whether we like it or not. But dont blame her or the parents or anyone else. I am sure this girl and her parents knew the risks. If they didnt, then the girl didnt deserve to be behind the wheel.
I wish her family the best.
Reply
Frank 10:24PM (10/03/2006)
What I want to know is, how was she thrown out of the cockpit. Usually those thinngs break up into a 1000 little pieces and the cockpit "capsule" is all that's left.
Reply
Buckus 10:52PM (10/03/2006)
I agree with PitBull. You play with fire, you might get burned. She got burned. Is it sad? Yes. Should we feel very bad for her and her family? Yes. Was it senseless? Not really.
By the way, if speed kills, everyone who ever flew in a plane would be dead. Speed doesn't kill, obviously (don't start talking about speed of light stuff, I'm talking about speeds able to be accomplised by earth-bound humans.)
Bad driving and the occassional bout of bad luck kills.
Reply
drago 11:38PM (10/03/2006)
An avoidable tragedy.
She should be in school getting good grades. Nice job Mom and Dad. :(
Reply
chewy 12:15AM (10/04/2006)
First of all this is some unhappy news for sure. But I think that the jet powered dragsters (as apposed to Top Fuel/Funny Cars) are more dangerous because they are really long and much more disproportional than the other powerful dragsters (because of the jet engine) Also they are cheaper to run than the piston nitromethane buring dragsters and therefore people that are less than proffesionals race them. They might be races but are not of the same experience as you find in the NHRA.
Reply
Ultima 12:25AM (10/04/2006)
There is this tendency now, that everyone can try anything, no fear...and then they get killed.
Reply