Quote:
Originally Posted by BruceinGa
Yes. It was March, 1969 at Yellow River Drag Strip, just east of Atlanta. Houston Platt loses control while racing Don Nicholson. I took the pic with a Polaroid camera.
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I had never heard of this incident until you mentioned it here, even though I've been living in the Atlanta area over 30 years. So, out of curiosity I researched it some. To this day it is still the worst US racing disaster. Just a few clarifications: Huston Platt was racing Frank Oglesby, who was driving Don Nicholson's car, a Cougar. At the 1,000-foot mark, Platt heard a bang and let off the throttle and deployed the parachute. As this happened, an idiot in the crowd ran out onto the track to retrieve a beer can and was killed instantly when he was hit by the parachute. The impact to the parachute caused the car to veer wildly into the crowd, killing ten more people, injuring 40 more. One of the injured died a few days later in an Atlanta hospital, bringing the death total to 12.