Kevin Ward Jr. died of massive blunt force trauma when he was hit by a race car driven by NASCAR star Tony Stewart, his autopsy has revealed.
The autopsy was completed on Monday, two days after the 20-year-old New York sprint car driver died after the incident on the track at Canandaigua Motorsports Park, Ontario County Sheriff Philip Povero said.
Authorities questioned Stewart following the tragedy on Saturday and went to Watkins Glen to talk to him again on Sunday — but Povero said there were no plans "at this time" to speak with him again.
Ward's funeral will be held on Thursday, according to the Empire Super Sprints website.
Povero repeated that there is no evidence that a crime was committed, and said authorities had a second video of the fatal incident that they were reviewing.
The second video shows the incident from a different angle, he said. There was no camera in Stewart's car that could have recorded the crash.
Other footage of the incident shows Stewart's car struck Ward as the helmeted driver stood on the dirt track after he hit a wall.
The crash occurred on lap 14 of a 25-lap race at the upstate New York track on Saturday evening.
Ward can then be seen getting out of his crashed car and walking towards other cars on the track before pointing a finger, apparently at Stewart.
A car swerves to avoid him, but when Stewart's car passes close to Ward, his right rear tire apparently hits him, and Ward was pulled beneath the car and thrown in the air.
In the next scene emergency workers are seen rushing to his aid. Ward was apparently not struck at racing speed, but sprint cars can go as fast at 140 mph.
After the tragedy, Stewart dropped out of the NASCAR event on Sunday.
According to his website, Kevin Ward Jr has been racing since age four and started Sprint Car racing in 2011. The New York native was Empire Super Sprint rookie of the year in 2012 and this year was his fifth season racing the Empire Super Sprints.
No comments:
Post a Comment