Participants say motocross accident just freak occurrence

Will Oremus

Friday, Aug. 22, 2003 | 11:06 a.m.

Like other extreme sports, part of the excitement of motocross stems from its inherent danger. But with 27-year-old Edwin Velasquez in a coma after a crash during open practice Tuesday night, Club MX is facing the prospect of a second fatal accident in two months at the motocross track it rents from Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Velasquez, a valet parker at Mandalay Bay, was in critical condition at University Medical Center's trauma unit Thursday. His grandfather Edward Velasquez said he hasn't regained consciousness since he was thrown from his bike at the track on Tuesday night.

Velasquez's crash follows a fatal wreck in June wreck that killed 5-year-old Tyler Santos. Santos was racing on the track's adjacent "pee wee" circuit, which has since been shut down.

Todd Gould, president of Club MX, said the track that Velasquez crashed on was generally safe. He said Velasquez crashed because he overshot a routine jump and was thrown from his bike by the impact of the landing.

"In my opinion, it was just a freak accident," he said. "The track right now is actually very mellow."

Gould explained that the Motor Speedway recently modified the track to make it safer, replacing hazardous "double" jumps with more manageable "table-top" jumps. The change came in the wake of Santos' death, and was intended to make the track suitable for the younger riders who could no longer use the pee wee circuit.

Still, "it's a dangerous sport," Gould said. "We know that before we put on the helmet. If you're involved in racing, if you don't recognize the danger, you're fooling yourself."

That's why Edward Velasquez, Edwin's grandfather, didn't approve of his grandson's recent decision to take up motocross.

"I tried to talk him out of it, because I've never been a motorcycle fan," Velasquez said. "They're too dangerous."

Velasquez said he never talked much with his grandson about motorbikes, except to occasionally mention his discomfort with the hobby, which Edwin Velasquez shared with his twin children.

"I'd just joke with him, you know," Edward Velasquez said. When his grandson offered to show him the bikes, "I told him I didn't want to see those things."

Though he said Edwin "has a mind of his own," Edward Velasquez characterized him as "very mature, very responsible as far as his family's concerned."

But Edward Velasquez said if it were up to him, there's "no way" the twins would be allowed to participate in such a dangerous activity.

Kyle Ambrose said he understands the sentiment, but when his own 14-year-old son Nathan recovered from serious injuries after a motocross accident three years ago, he decided to allow him to continue riding.

"It's his passion," Ambrose said. "When he was in the hospital and he was critical, I said, 'Buddy, maybe we need to do something else.' He said, 'Dad, stuff like this is going to happen.' "

Ambrose said that despite the recent tragedies, he prefers Las Vegas Motor Speedway to other circuits in the region.

"I think they've got more safety stuff going here right now than a lot of the tracks we see in California," he said.

Gould said Velasquez wasn't a member of Club MX and hadn't participated in any of the club's races, but he did come out to practice riding on a regular basis. At this point, no one knows exactly why Velasquez missed a jump Tuesday night that he had apparently completed with ease many times before.

Brad Huff, a 39-year-old regular at the track, said mechanical failure can occasionally be to blame in such accidents.

"It sounds like maybe his throttle stuck or something," Huff said. Given proper maintenance, that's a rare occurrence, Huff said -- but then again, so is a life-threatening crash on a table-top jump.

Chris Powell, general manager of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, defended the decision to keep the track open in the wake of Santos' death.

"You never want to see anybody get hurt, but there are plenty of people who enjoy competing and experiencing motocross, and it's like a lot of other so-called extreme sports -- there are inherent dangers," he said. "Right now, it seems fairly coincidental that we've had a little run of injuries that have been more severe than what we've had in the past four-and-a-half years."

Elsewhere across the country, tracks have been sued by crash victims and their families, but Santos's parents did not want the pee wee track to close after their son's death.

As to whether Velasquez's family has considered a suit, Edward Velasquez said: "They haven't even talked about that."

Powell said he didn't know much about (the accident), "but our thoughts and prayers are with his family and we hope for the best."

Sun reporter Brian Hilderbrand contributed to this report.