Unsafe At Any Speed

NASCAR is deadly — very, very deadly:

NASCAR speedways like the one proposed for Staten Island are races to the death, a top FDNY official has told stunned borough leaders.

Staten Island Fire Chief Thomas Haring spoke to community board leaders Thursday and reportedly said the FDNY had discovered an average of six people die on race weekends from a variety of causes at or near a track like this one.

The stunning statistic came as the department conducted a review of similar-sized speedways across the country as part of an interagency group looking at the proposed $600-million speedway in preparation for a public review.

“We were taken aback when they said six fatalities at the smaller facilities that are comparable to [the one proposed for] Staten Island,” said Marie Bodnar, district manager of Community Board 3. “We were all surprised.”

They apparently weren’t the only ones.

Top FDNY sources seemed equally surprised by the statement and were unsure about how the figures were obtained.

. . .

Bodnar said fire officials told them the causes were not simply in the races themselves but were attributed to heart attacks, traffic accidents to and from the track, or any other mishap during several days of race weekend events.