Car jumps guardrail, hits spectator before splitting in half at NC dragway, video shows
Spectators at a drag strip in Western North Carolina captured the moment a purple Ford Mustang lost control and hit a guardrail before splitting in half on a metal post and coming to rest on the track.
The driver walked away unscathed. But a 22-year-old woman watching the race was injured.
Wilkesboro Dragway confirmed in a Facebook post just after 7 p.m. Saturday there had been a wreck earlier in the day leaving one person hurt. Wilkesboro is about 80 miles northwest of Charlotte.
“Unfortunately we have had an accident at the track and will need to call off test and tune for tomorrow,” Wilkesboro Dragway said. “We have some sensor issues and guard rail damage.. Please say a prayer for the racer and for the lady that is injured.”
Video of the accident shared on social media shows the Mustang was in the left lane racing a small pickup truck.
Within seconds of the race starting, the Mustang appears to drift left before taking a sudden sharp turn into the guardrail. It flips over, grazes the top of the guardrail and takes out a trash can before ramming into the scoreboard — splitting in half on impact.
Debris littered the track as the front half of the car skid on its roof a few hundred feet, a 22-minute video posted on YouTube shows.
The driver is then seen climbing out on his belly, rolling onto his feet and throwing both arms in the air to signal he was OK as the crowd cheered.
“No way,” the person recording can be heard saying.
Wilkesboro Dragway identified the injured person as Amber Garner, 22, in a follow-up post Sunday.
Garner broke her arm in at least four places, Fox 8 reported.
“There were two cars that were racing and I guess one of them lost control,” Garner told Fox 8 in an interview from her hospital room. “It hit the guardrail where I was at and went over it and hit me on the side of my arm. As soon as it did hit me, I guess I fell on the ground — I blacked out, so I don’t know exactly.”
She said she couldn’t even look at her arm at first, recounting she “thought that it was gone.”
Garner was taken to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, The Wilkesboro Journal-Patriot reported, citing Wilkes EMS Director Tim Pennington.
Pennington told the newspaper she had “a fractured right arm with an open wound” and confirmed no one else was treated at the scene.
The driver — who has not been publicly identified — declined treatment when first responders got to him, the Journal-Patriot reported, citing Ferguson Fire Chief Jeff Matherly.
Matherly said the driver told first responders to “go check on others.”
Wilkesboro Dragway owner Phil Halbedel told the newspaper Garner had been standing near the scoreboard “and shouldn’t have been there.”
He also described the Mustang as “a poorly-made car,” The Journal-Patriot reported.
