Tragedy Cited as Proof of Dangers : Drag Boat Racers Say Conditions at Irvine Lake Unsafe

The drag boat accident that killed 9-year-old Brandy Branchflower Sunday at Irvine Lake raised new criticisms of safety provisions at the lake and of the National Drag Boat Assn.’s handling of races there.

The loudest critics have been the drivers themselves.

Said driver Mel Kirby: “There’s no room for error. You don’t have any time to react to a mistake, or if something goes wrong mechanically.”

It was Jim Lange’s boat, High Anxiety, that veered out of control and into the crowd Sunday. Driver Dennis Serber, who was sitting in his boat as Lange passed, said he saw Lange trying to force the boat to the left and away from the shore, but the boat would not respond.

“You could see him turning the wheel all the way to the left, but he was out of control,” Serber said. “It wasn’t his fault, there was just no room for him. It just seems that they always set this course up wrong. There’s not enough shutdown space to slow down, and they’re running directly into the wind.”

Serber, who has been racing the National Drag Boat Assn. circuit since 1979, said he ranks Irvine at the bottom among all the courses the association sanctions.

“I bet there have been more accidents, more injuries and more deaths on this course in the last three years than all the other ones we race combined,” Serber said.

‘Think About Safety First’

But Tom Indovina, counsel for the racing association, said neither the lake nor the association was at fault for the previous accidents.

“We’ve determined that those accidents were because of driver error,” Indovina said. “When we map out a course, we think about safety first. It’s ridiculous to say there wasn’t enough room to shut down. This is the same course we had yesterday, and we had no problems then.”

Drivers have expressed disapproval of the association’s policy of changing the race course for each event. They say it is unsafe.

“When you race at Firebird in Phoenix, or Chowchilla, you know what the course is going to be like,” Serber said. “Here, you don’t know what you’ll be driving until you get out here.”

Indovina said he doesn’t understand “all this criticism. This is as good a facility as we race at. I’ve had people come up to me and say this is the best course they’ve ever run on.”

While drivers have asked the association to improve conditions at the lake, they say that most times, their suggestions go unheeded.

“I’ve always felt they shouldn’t allow people that close to the water and the boats,” driver Mike Fetterman. “And certainly, I think they should keep young kids away.”

Fences have been put up to keep crowds away, but they don’t.

“The people who come out here want to be close enough to bite the boats,” said Rinaldo Sanchez, who was sitting just a few feet from Lange’s boat when it sped onshore.

“There’s no way you’re going to keep these people back,” Fetterman said. “Half of them come just to see us crash.”

On April 9, 1983, Randy Au crashed his boat into a crowded bank, injuring three spectators. The next day, attendance was estimated at 20,000, the largest crowd ever to turn out for a boat race at the lake. In fact, most drivers said the unusually large turnout for Sunday’s races had to do with a couple of accidents on Saturday.

Accidents Draw Crowds

“Today it’s packed because a couple of guys went in the drink yesterday,” Fetterman said. “Don’t think this accident will hurt the sport here. There will be even more people next time, because they’ll read and see this accident. I don’t understand it, but that’s the way it is.”

Driver Dan Fitzgerald said, “This is the kind of thing a driver has nightmares about. I don’t know if it could have been avoided, but I know Jim Lange would have rather hurt himself than that little girl. In this type of situation, I guess there’s nothing you can do.”