Peroni suffered concussion and fractured vertebra in aerial F3 crash

2019 Italian Grand Prix

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Formula 3 driver Alex Peroni suffered concussion and a fractured vertebra in his horrific in today’s race at Monza.

An updated posted to one of his social media accounts confirmed the details of his injuries. His team also expressed their thanks to the medical staff at the Monza circuit and at the San Gerardo hospital in Monza where he has been taken for treatment.

Peroni’s Campos car was launched high into the air when he struck a kerb at the exit of the Parabolica on the 18th lap of the 22-lap race. The car flipped over and landed upside-down on top of a barrier.

In a further social media post the 19-year-old Australia driver said: “That was a big one.

“Currently recovering in hospital with a broken vertebra,” he added. “Not sure the recovery time but hope to be back in the car as soon as possible.

“Thanks everyone for the messages and support I really appreciate it.”

The race concluded behind the Safety Car while Peroni was recovered from his car. The kerb he hit was removed before F1’s final practice session began and was not replaced throughout the rest of the day.

Peroni’s injury means he will be unable to take part in the second Formula 3 race of the weekend tomorrow. The final race weekend of the season will take place in Sochi in three weeks’ time.

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Image: Alex Peroni via Instagram

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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19 comments on “Peroni suffered concussion and fractured vertebra in aerial F3 crash”

  1. Motorsport UK 2009
    7th September 2019, 17:30

    Halo saved his life

  2. In a way, it’s a relief to hear that’s all he suffered, having seen a video of the accident, it was scary, particularly since the car’s altitude meant it did not engage with the barriers in the designed manner.

    Concussions are nasty, let’s hope he gets through tonight safely (the first sleep carries an amount of risk).

  3. It’s surprising they just let the driver walk away from a crash like that. One of the first lessons in A&E is first to stabilize neck and back until you’re sure there’s no fracture. If the fracture is unstable and starts moving, he could end up being paralyzed.

    1. What makes you think they knew? Someone who can walk generally hasn’t broken their neck or back. It was only discovered in the medical center.

      Dumb comment.

      1. @M Archer. It’s not a dumb comment at all from Gerd, because there have been plenty of accidents, both cars and other sorts, where doctors later discover broken vertebraes and other nasty stuff which could end badly.. Seen it myself when I ended up in hospital.. Neck collar and spineboard is really there for precaution..

        1. I was quite lucky after my motorcycle crash but the paramedics forced my helmet of like some stupid idiots, the helmet has a safety thing that take the helmet apart, I did have a small crack in my neck and they really took a toll on my neck, I even yelled at them for being dumbasses, while I was litterly dying, as they found out later that I did have a leak from my aorta and did have alot of blodd under the lungs..

      2. @gerd81 ‘s comment is from dumb, M Archer. On the contrary, it raises very pertinent questions to the handling of motorsport drivers who’ve been in accidents.
        – The marshals have to err on the side of caution when it comes to driver safety. Always. I wouldn’t want to be the victim when someone assumes that “someone who can walk generally hasn’t broken their neck or back”.
        – Someone can have a minor fracture that – if left unstabilized – can worsen. Imagine a driver in such a condition walking away under a surge of adrenaline, and then worsening things when climbing into the low-slung medical car, and thereafter at any point from trackside to the medical centre/hospital when they can actually stick him into an X-ray machine.
        – It raises a question to the FIA technical delegates to check the accelerometers and the G-force warning light to see if they malfunctioned and didn’t warn the marshals.
        – It raises a question to the FIA medical delegates whether they need to expand the limit when the G-force light illuminates, or if they need to revise driver extraction procedures.

        And we’re not even touching on the car safety aspects of cars flying and hitting barriers the wrong way.

        Hardly a dumb comment. On the contrary, one that deserves a future follow-up.

        1. gerd81‘s comment is far from dumb, M Archer.

        2. Good explanation @phylyp, and well said @meko1971, yeah it is a bit odd that this was handled the way it was. Something extra to look at for the FIA I think, and check why there wasn’t a better procedure followed.

        3. So where do we draw a line?

          Is every driver going to have to remain in his car after an accident until the medical team have stabilised his neck – just in case its broken?

          Was there any sign at all he had neck or back pain before he got out the car? Any radio contact? No?

          If a driver is OK enough to jump out of his car, you can hardly assign “blame” to anyone who “lets” him do so.

          I am sick of reading comments from people where whatever has happened is never good enough, so that have to find some blame and pile it onto someone else.

          He got out the car by himself ffs, it’s not like they dragged him out of it kicking and screaming.

          So I reiterate – a dumb comment.

          1. I partly see your point and agree there has to be some criterion that determines when the accident is ‘severe enough’ in order to protect back and neck while extracting. I assume the medical team has some kind of protocol (based on the G force sensor?) and that they do draw the line. So I raised the matter as it surprised me, since the crash and deceleration looked so severe. I disagree with the view that when a driver climbs out and walks away by himself this automatically means the neck & spine are fine, as there are numerous examples of the contrary in road traffic accidents.
            Thinking of it, possibly the reason you don’t often see spine boards or neck collars after F1 crashes could be 1) because they already have HANS, and 2) the fact that extraction out of an F1 cockpit simply can’t be done in an immobilised way, so maybe it is partly seen as an unavoidable risk? Still, if it was me, I would have me carried to the medical center on that stretcher…

          2. I am sick of reading comments from people where whatever has happened is never good enough, so that have to find some blame and pile it onto someone else.

            I don’t see any blame being apportioned in the comments, I’m not sure where you’re reading that.

            All I see is a healthy questioning attitude – “Could we have done better?” “What could we do differently?” that drives improvement in any facet of life.

            So where do we draw a line?
            Is every driver going to have to remain in his car after an accident until the medical team have stabilised his neck – just in case its broken?
            Was there any sign at all he had neck or back pain before he got out the car?

            Quoting myself, a re-examination of current systems, processes and procedures.

            – It raises a question to the FIA technical delegates to check the accelerometers and the G-force warning light to see if they malfunctioned and didn’t warn the marshals.
            – It raises a question to the FIA medical delegates whether they need to expand the limit when the G-force light illuminates, or if they need to revise driver extraction procedures.

          3. I refer to Gerd’s comment about “letting” him walk away, when he walked away by himself. If you crash and can get out your car, you get out your car. It’s an instinctive behaviour.

            Sorry to be arguementative I just think that it was a strange thing to focus on given that everyone should just be v glad he was able to extract himself and walk away.

            Anyway, I’m as furious as anyone else about the sausage kerbs STILL being used in stupid places.

            Maybe in time they will learn.

          4. M Archer, there are actually several racing series where the drivers are meant to stay in the car until they are attended by medical personnel for that reason.

            The World Endurance Championship does normally insist on that, in part because there was a period when there were several drivers who suffered back injuries in heavy crashes. There was a case where Davidson fractured a vertebrae during a crash in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and quite possibly then aggravated that injury when he was climbing out of the car, even though the drivers were instructed to stay in the car unless it was absolutely necessary to get out.

    2. exactly @gerd81 and this type of care would have been performed in other sports like motogp or bsb. the crash is so ridiculous that Perroni had to have suffered big injuries, but everyone acted like nothing.

  4. Thats not good. Hoping for a speedy recovery.

  5. How come a kurb that can do that is allowed?

  6. That’s nuts! Almost like one of Bernie’s ideas to spice up the show. All they would have to do is zoom a camera across the apex of the corner and use simple security software to trigger an alert if tires go into the area you mask as out of bounds. I use iSpy for home security. It would work perfectly. And it’s free and open source.

  7. If that crash happened in a racing game, people would complain about how unrealistic the physics were.

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