| | Associated Press
CONCORD, N.C. -- Some 200,000 fans converged on Lowe's Motor
Speedway on Sunday for the Coca-Cola 600, their trip a little slower
because of the aftereffects of last week's pedestrian bridge
collapse.
Tens of thousands of fans normally use two overhead walkways to
get across U.S. 29 -- a four-lane highway -- and into the track. But
patrons had to cross the road at ground level rather than on
elevated walkways.
"It was congested," said Sgt. Mike Faison, a state Highway
Patrol supervisor. "People were anxious to get in."
Faison said most of the fans used the two crosswalks on U.S. 29
in an orderly fashion. But there were a few stragglers who chose
their own routes.
"The main problem we had were pedestrians not crossing at the
crosswalks, darting in and out and in front of cars," Faison said.
"We tried to keep them from getting hit."
He reported no problems prior to the start of the race.
Mike Gaffney, 40, was attending his first NASCAR race. He builds
bridges in Ohio and said he wouldn't hesitate to walk across an
overhead bridge that was closed by the track following the initial
mishap.
"Anything is possible," Gaffney said of the walkway collapse
last Saturday night. "Bridges are generally built to last 30 or 35
years. I would say it was a freak thing."
An 80-foot section of one of the two walkways collapsed as The
Winston all-star race ended May 20, spilling race fans leaving the
speedway onto the road 17 feet below. More than 100 people were
injured.
"Traffic went as well as we had hoped it would go," speedway
spokesman Jerry Gappens said of Sunday's crowd. "You don't go
anywhere fast on race day."
Gappens said the traffic situation was helped by rainy weather
until about 2 p.m., spreading out the amount of traffic over a
longer period. More cars also used Interstate 85 and Speedway
Boulevard as a way into the track.
"We just peeled people off into parking lots from there,"
Gappens said.
Busch driver Mike Dillon may have been the best person to ask
about the traffic. He got a call Sunday to be a standby driver for
Rick Mast, who is suffering from food poisoning.
So, Dillon left a surprise birthday party for his grandmother
and headed north on I-85 from South Carolina.
"We drove straight in," he said. | |
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