The Death of Ayrton Senna
Often in people's lives an event can happen that is forever remembered as one of the most important. Be it a family story, or something that has absolutely nothing to do with the person, the event is deeply engraved in the individual's mind and will always stay with him or her.
This happened when I was twelve years old. I have been a car-racing fan since the age of nine and ever since I started getting into the world of the Formula 1 World Championship, one driver started capturing my attention more and more. His name was Ayrton Senna, of Brazil. A three-time World Champion, whom I saw in 1994, after two seasons of driving for the same mediocre team (while still managing to win a few races), poised to win his fourth title, driving for the best team in the sport, Williams-Renault. Even after crashing in the first two races of the season, everybody, including me, saw him as the main contender. Then came the third race of the season, in a little country of San Marino, in the small city of Imola…
The racing weekend started off on April 29th, 1994 on a very sour note. During free practice, the Jordan of the new Formula 1 star, Rubens Barrichello, crashed at a speed close to 150 miles per hour, slamming headfirst into a wall of tires. The driver was knocked unconscious and transported to a hospital, where Senna, his countryman, was the first person Rubens saw when he came to. Next day, during the qualifying session, a promising Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger was killed when a wing on his Simtek ripped off on a speed of about 170 miles per hour. The car then hit a concrete wall, Roland suffering extensive damage to his head. He died on the spot, forcing Senna to say to a friend and rival of his, Frenchman Alain Prost, that if he could avoid racing the next day, he would. Nevertheless, unable to do much himself, Senna won the pole position and was to start first in Sunday's race.
Sunday's race started off on a tragic note as well. A young Portuguese driver, Pedro Lamy, did not see the stalled Benetton of a Finn Yurki Yarvi Lehto, slamming his Lotus into Lehto's car at a high speed. The debris flew all over the spectator's stands, injuring five people. One of them was hurt so bad, he went into a coma.
This conclusion was arrived at by the Royal Courts of Justice in London who after 23 hours produced the verdict that Henri’s ‘gross negligence’ contributed to the crash. Henri Paul was driving the couple whilst under the influence. This alcohol caused him to drive more erratically, and crash into the tunnel pillar. Witnesses say that Paul was drinking at the Ritz bar on the night of the crash. This was confirmed by bar receipts found after the crash. A medical expert concluded that Paul had had ten aperitifs, and was twice over the British driving limit of 80 milligrams of alcohol, and three times over the French one of 50 milligrams of alcohol when he drove the couple that night. French prosecutors say that his alcohol levels were between 1.73 g/L and 1.75 g/L (approximately 0.17% mass/vol.) at 12:25 am, following the crash. It has been estimated by investigators that the Mercedes-Benz crashed into the tunnel pillar driving at 105 km/h, over the speed limit of 50km/h. This was more than double the speed limit. The official verdict was that the crash was in equal part by Henri Paul’s drunkenness and the pursuing
What do events like the assassination of John F. Kennedy, The Challenger space shuttle disaster, and hurricane Andrew that shook Miami have in common? All these events can be remembered by the people who experienced it due to flashbulb memory. Flashbulb memories were defined by R. Brown and J. Kulik (1977) as vivid, detailed, and long-lasting memories for attributes of the reception context of public news (Curci, A., & Lanciano, T., 2009). The people who experience such huge events are certain that their flashbulb memories are very accurate and can give in detail what occurred to them in those events (Schwartz, 2013). Furthermore events that generate flashbulb memories are usually very surprising and emotionally arousing and are perceived by the subject as personally consequential (Emotion & Memory 1993). But not all memories need to be negative and tragic. Events like the first day of first grade, your first romantic kiss, your first day at a new job, or recital of your wedding vows can also be described as flashbulb memories (Schwartz, 2013).
Have you ever had the most important day of your life or the worst that has made an enormous impact on you? Well these people have also had something very a huge impact in their lives and others as well.
...These specifics recalled consist of things which, under normal conditions, we probably would not have ever remembered. The number of detailed facts retained about a particular situation is usually commensurate to the intensity of involvement or proximity to the action in question; therefore, it can be reasonably concluded that while these memories are not always perfectly engrained into our minds, interesting arguments exist which support the possibility of substantial and long-term recall of these matters.
Remembrance is an integral part of our everyday lives. Both pleasant and unpleasant memories shape who we are as human beings. The definition of memory is two fold 1. “the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information” and 2. “Something remembered from the past; a recollection” (Google Definition). The life of memory has three stages in which it is created. An event occurs in ones life it becomes encoded and stored in the brain. Following the encoding, the brain then has full access to retrieve the memory in a response to any current activity or thought. Memories are unique to each person. There are three main types of memories that are studied. An individual memory is one that is formed by his or her personal experiences. An institutional
On June 2011, three teenage boys were killed in a car accident near Raleigh, North Carolina. Sixteen-year-old Austin Flowers was driving along with his friends Lane Meyer, sixteen-year-old and Matt Speight, seventeen-year-old after a church event Sunday night. WBTV News reported that the driver, Austin Flowers was driving 129 mph. Austin lost control over the speed and crashed into a tree. All three boys attended Wake Forest-Rolesville High School. Matt Speight was set to graduate and would have turned eighteen that week. The funeral for all three boys was held in Raleigh area (“3 NC Teens...” ).
Everything in life that we experience effects who we are as a person today. Even if we do not remember all the events that shaped a particular part of our life, we have memories of the events that we believe had the biggest impact. The types or experiences we have both positive and negative help shape us into the types of readers and writers we become.
It’s May 5, 2012. It’s a Saturday night after a stressful week of school. It’s an ordinary spring day. We had been at Truman Lake on the water all day, looking forward to a great night of racing. The sun rose up, the heat was reaching the upper nineties, and conditions were beautiful for a night filled with racing. My uncle had box tickets to the Impact Night at Wheatland Speedway. My mom, dad, brother, and three of our family friends all piled into our seven passenger SUV to head down to Wheatland, MO. Little did we know what was in store. The races started off intense and every race had at least one wreck. After a long day, we were driving home. Exhausted, I had just dozed off on my mom’s shoulder when out of nowhere on Highway 83, we swerved off the road to avoid getting hit head-on by a drunk driver. Sliding every which way through the ditch, we hit a school bus sign; only feet away from guard rail. Thanks to my dad’s retired dirt track racing skills and someone watching over us, everyone in that car is alive today.
“ A family of five was traveling to Florida for a family vacation when the family was suddenly struck between two semi’s. The EMT’s pronounced the whole family dead at the scene earlier that night. Police have yet to release details on what the cause of the accident was but said it was an unexpected incident”, the local news reported said.
People are more likely to remember events that have more emotion attached to them. Studies have shown a correlation of 71% between participants’ ratings of their memories vividness and their ratings of how emotional events had been (Reisberg, Heuer, McLean & O’Shaughnessy, 1988,
persons’ life can stick with the person throughout their life like a thorn in the side. The event will every so
This report is based upon extensive library and internet research as well as an interview with Zaman Qamar, performance engineer at General Motors. He is one of the team members for crash and safety department which deals with accidental issues during severe crash.
- Australia t.v showed pictures of the car accident - which told the whole story
An Event which changed my life, well when, I think back on my life there’s
This is not the only occasion in my life that has shaped my identity but it has changed me the most. My parents got divorced when I was only eleven years old. I did not foresee the divorce coming, as I was never in their presence when they argued. Then, one night, they asked my little brother and me to take a seat at the dining room table. They then told me that they were getting a divorce and my mouth instanously went dry. I cried so much that my nose stuffed up to the point where I could not smell. My eyes began streaming with tears, and through my tears I could see my brother sitting across from me looking very confused. The only thing that I could hear were my parents trying to comfort me with their soft words, and I could feel their warm arms holding me. I eventually calmed down enough to go to bed, but the memory of my parents telling me they were getting a divorce will stay with me forever. This changes how I act every day and therefore my identity. I am not the only person with a story like this. Everybody has a story like mine from their past that has shaped their